The ongoing recovery efforts following the sinking of the MV Barima continue to face challenging underwater conditions, with limited visibility and strong tidal currents creating difficulties for divers operating at the wreck site.
Lieutenant (N) Tyler Ferraz, Commanding Officer of the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard vessel TTS Space Eye (Charlie Golf 25), said the vessel has been supporting search and recovery operations in Guyana’s waters since arriving on Tuesday.
“We have utilised our seven-man dive team that has been embarked on board from Trinidad in assistance with dive and recovery operations at the wreck site,” Lt. Faraz explained.
He noted that the vessel, along with its two daughter craft, has also conducted multiple inshore and coastal patrols along Guyana’s northwestern coast in search of possible survivors or persons in the water.
Lt. Farraz highlighted that one of the greatest challenges confronting the dive team is poor underwater visibility.
“Due to the proximity to the coastline, it is very low visibility down there such that a lot of the divers are unable to see their hands in front of their face, anything [not] more than a foot,” he said.
He noted the muddy and cloudy nature of the seabed, combined with movement during recovery operations and vessel activity, further reduces visibility for divers and that tidal streams near the river mouth also require divers to take necessary pauses during operations to ensure their safety.
“These are challenges that the divers have to contend with to ensure we don’t cause further loss of life in the attempt to try and bring closure to persons for those who might have passed in the tragedy,” Lt. Faraz stated.
For the wider search operations, he explained that the shallow waters present additional challenges, particularly during visual searches.
“The shallowness of the depth would be one of the challenges for me in terms of visual search operations; however, with the two daughter craft embarked, we have a third approach to those searches and try to utilise the vessels on board as best as possible to conduct searches inshore as closely as possible as we can,” he said.
The Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard remains part of the multi-agency response assisting Guyanese authorities in the ongoing search, rescue and recovery mission.
A total of 17 primary assets, consisting of 14 vessels and three aircraft, along with specialised local and international dive teams, are employed in the search and recovery operations.