Lessons from the Slick: Leadership Maritime Pollution Disasters

Lessons from the Slick examines thirteen major marine pollution incidents spanning more than five decades, from Torrey Canyon in 1967 to MV Wakashio in 2020, drawing out the leadership, organizational, and governance failures that turned manageable situations into catastrophes. It then turns to the emerging risk landscape: aging fleets, abandoned vessels, alternative fuels, battery fires, hazardous cargoes, and Arctic waters, where the next generation of incidents is already being shaped by conditions visible today.Written by a former maritime officer, maritime consultant, and spill prevention program manager, this book bridges the gap between the incident investigation report and the leadership handbook. It is built for the people who have to do something with what incidents teach: vessel operators, port authorities, emergency managers, response professionals, executives, and board members who carry responsibility for what happens when things go wrong at sea.The oil slick is not the beginning of the story. The decisions that made it inevitable were made years earlier, in offices, boardrooms, and bridge wings, by people who thought they were managing acceptable risk. This book is about those decisions, and the ones that can still be made differently.