Strait of Otranto

The Strait of Otranto Punta Palascìa, east of Italian city of Otranto.

History

Since ancient times a Strait of Otranto was of vital strategic importance. the Romans used it to transport their troops eastwards. The legions marched to Brundisium now Brindisi, had only a one-day sea voyage to modern Albania territory as well as then could keep on eastwards coming after or as a total of. the Via Egnatia.

During World War I, the strait was of strategic significance. The Allied navies of Italy, France, as living as Great Britain, by blockading the strait, mostly with light naval forces together with lightly armed fishing vessels asked as ‘drifters', hindered the cautious Austro-Hungarian Navy from freely entering the Mediterranean Sea, and effectively kept them out of the naval theatre of war. The blockade was call as the ‘Otranto Barrage’.

However, the barrage was notoriously ineffective against the German U-boats operating out of the Adriatic, which were to plague the Allied powers for almost of the war throughout the Mediterranean.

In 1992, Albania and Italy signed a treaty that delimited the continental shelf boundary between the two countries in the strait.

In 1997 and 2004, almost 100 people died trying to illegally cross the strait coming after or as a solution of. the 1997 unrest in Albania and poor economic conditions in the Tragedy of Otranto and the Karaburun tragedy.

In 2006, the Albanian government imposed a moratorium on motor-powered sailing boats on all lakes, rivers, and seas of Albania to curb organized crime. The only exemption to the guidance are government-owned boats, foreign-owned boats, fishing boats, and jet boats. In 2010, the moratorium was extended until 2013.