Panama Canal Video Shows Cargo Ships Backed up Amid Drought

Video footage of a flotilla of cargo vessels waiting to be let through the Panama Canal has gone viral on X, formerly known as Twitter, accruing 1 million views since being posted on Sunday.

The clip, shot from a plane window, shows more than 30 of the ships seemingly stationary outside the busy artificial shipping lane, which was built by the U.S. to better connect the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. A live shipping tracker shows vessels queueing up on either side of the canal to pass through.

The latest official figures from the canal authorities say that there are more than 100 ships waiting to transit, 48 of which are prebooked and a further 75 without a booking. The delays are reportedly already having an impact on the price of goods.

Earlier in August, the Panama Canal Authority said it would be reducing the number of ships allowed to transit the waterway because of drought conditions that had impacted its water supply. The canal operates through a series of locks that lift the ships to the elevation of Gatun Lake, an artificial body of water between the two inlets, which requires large amounts of water.

"We've had long lineups of ships before," the authority stated at the time, attributing delays to climate change and increased seasonal demand. "Despite current limitations and measures taken, demand remains high, hence the increased waiting times."

Social-media users responded to the clip either by noting the drought's link to climate change, or by expressing incredulity at claims of rising sea levels—seemingly misunderstanding that, though the canal links two oceans, it relies on a separate body of water that is replenished by rain.

As of Monday, the Panama Canal Authority has reduced the number of ships allowed to travel through the canal from a daily average of 36 to 32, and has cut the number of booking slots available to use the locks from 23 to 14.

The authority said this was to alleviate the congestion caused by ships already in the queue or en route to the canal. Boris Moreno Vazquez, the canal's vice president of operations, later extended the reduced booking conditions to September 2.

The Panama Canal saw more than 14,200 ships pass through it in 2022—the highest number since 2014, according to figures compiled by Statista. The narrow route, first opened by the U.S. in 1914, allows cargo vessels to travel between the American continents rather than having to circumnavigate them, reducing transit times.

The restrictions have already seen the spot price for shipping between China and the U.S. rise by as much as 36 percent, Reuters reported on Monday.

In some cases, ships were reportedly being forced to unload cargo to be transported through other means.

"Those containers left may need another vessel to complete the journey," Captain Adil Ashiq, who oversees North American maritime intelligence for MarineTraffic, told CNBC. "This is going to get worse before it gets better."

Newsweek approached the Panama Canal Authority's office of operations via email for comment on Tuesday.

Panama is among the wettest nations in the world, but this year's rainy season has so far yielded far less rainfall than usual. Experts pointed the finger at El Nino, a naturally occurring pattern of warm seawater in the Pacific, which is growing warmer due to climate change and is impacting weather systems in the region.

This, coupled with a warmer climate leading to greater evaporation of Gatun Lake, had created the perfect storm of events that had led to the congestion, Steve Paton told Reuters. He is a member of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, which researches Panama's climate.

The Panama Canal Authority said that, though it had made attempts to be more efficient in its use of water, the current severity of variations in the climate had no historical precedence.