WAK ASHIO: How the crisis communications
could have been better handled By Dustin Eno, Chief Operating Officer, Navigate Response
Dustin has over 12 years of communications experience including as the head of crisis communications for the largest wildfire management centre in British Columbia, Canada. Dustin has a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences degree (BASc) specialising in audience engagement and political rhetoric and a master’s degree in communications (MSc) from the London School of Economics (LSE). As Navigate Response’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Crisis Response Manager, Dustin manages the media response for numerous shipping incidents, coordinates the operations of our global network and is one of the company’s lead media trainers. In addition to his crisis communication experience, Dustin has a background in public relations and has held several positions on the boards of directors for charitable organisations. Dustin is also an award-winning workshop presenter and public speaker. For more details go to
https://www.navigatepr.com
In this article Dustin explains how a better strategy could have lessened the damage of the MV Wakashio grounding.
A large vessel aground on a coral reef spilling oil into enticing turquoise waters is always a huge problem. But, in the case of the MV Wakashio, a better communications strategy could have lessened the damage done to the reputations of the companies involved and to our industry.
The MV Wakashio, an unladen bulker, ran aground in Mauritius early in the evening on 25 July 2020. Pictures started circulating quickly, but intense media coverage only started two weeks later when fuel oil started leaking from the vessel. Over the coming weeks the story remained high- profile with frequent spikes in coverage associated with developments ranging from dead dolphins washing up on the shore to the vessel breaking up.
As happens all too often in our industry, the media and communications response was insufficient at several steps.
72 | The Report • December 2020 • Issue 94
Communications should have started much sooner. By the time the charterer and the owner released statements on their websites (two weeks after the initial grounding), public perception and anger had already formed. Locals were widely quoted as saying they’d been abandoned by the company and government and had no choice but to take the clean-up into their own hands. The government, in partnership with the companies, should have taken a clear communications lead and proactively engaged with the community from day one.
Better coordination of messaging was needed. It often appeared the parties were not working together. For example, at one point investigators reported that the vessel had sailed near land seeking Wi-Fi. However, local police directly contradicted this claim saying that they wouldn’t have needed to come so close to get a signal. On its own this
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