Excellent explanation of these issues. BTW Hormuz Strait is about 28Nm wide at narrowest point. So Iran can't see ships passing close to UAE.
I was just advising Barefoot Doctors with a new catamaran stuck in Dubai that if they sailed in shallow water very close to UAE coast as a shallow draft aluminium electric catamaran can do, they had very low risk of Iranian fire or mines (which are magnetically activated and normally in deep sea lanes to stop ships.
RE: How do you search for ships at sea?