What were they doing? The obvious answer would be that it was a sport fishing venture, but in the quotes of the survivors I saw the word “trawling” used to describe their activities. I suppose in the loosest possible sense this could have been a translation of of a word indicating “fishing” or “trolling” as we would put it, but to me it doesn’t quite add up. The quoted survivor says he is experienced enough to know all about warning signals etc., but yet he was naive enough to race at full speed towards a USN vessel in the Strait of Hormuz?
Sounds like a probe of our Rules of Engagement to me.