The Maritime Attention Index shows that public interest in the shipping industry is fading from the highs early in the US-Israel war on Iran, writes Dustin Eno, a crisis communications consultant. US president Donald Trump’s announcement on March 3 that US armed forces would “guide” vessels out of the Strait of Hormuz in an operation dubbed “Project Freedom” predictably caused a dramatic spike in global media coverage of the maritime industry. However, unlike earlier developments in the US-Israel war on Iran which saw the Maritime Attention Index (MAI) spike, the index moved only slightly following the latest announcement. This lack of real public interest in the latest development is consistent with the pattern of fading attention that we are seeing. The MAI is a standardised composite daily measure of how much real attention shipping is getting. It draws on data sources including Google search volumes, Wikipedia page views, social media interactions, and mainstream news. It measures not just whether the industry is being written about, but whether it is actually capturing public interest. Public attention is finite And we have been capturing it. The MAI has been continually above its historical average since November 6 2025 (see chart below). That is 180 consecutive days; just 17 days short of the record set during the Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. While the duration isn’t yet a record, the intensity absolutely is. During the Red Sea attacks, the MAI averaged 85 – the index has averaged 131 across the current streak (50 represents the long-run historical average). While media coverage of our industry remains extraordinarily high, the MAI has been falling since a peak on March 12. The decline has been jagged – interrupted by spikes including a large one in April after Iran seized vessels and the index jumped to 260 for a day – but the overall slope is steeply down having dropped from 353 to around 140. About 1,000 ships and 20,000 seafarers remain trapped in the Gulf with impacts rippling across global politics and the economy. Public attention remains high – more than double the historical average – but it is fading. That is how attention often works: the story moves on long before the situation does. We have spent years complaining that nobody understands what we do. That shipping’s contribution to the global economy is not understood. That seafarers are given little more than an afterthought. For six months, people have been paying attention, but the data shows that attention is beginning to drift. If the industry still has things it wants the wider world to absorb — about the people, the routes, the costs of disruption — the time to be saying them clearly and repeatedly is now. To those who have been speaking out, thank you. To those who are hesitating, there’s an opportunity now. Get some media and communications advice. Consider the goals for yourself, your organisation, and the industry, and, with proper consideration, say publicly what you want to say. Public attention is finite. It is fading but still briefly ours. The question is whether we use it. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1_95_0_1_2'); }); TagsIran