00:00Guyana's President Dr. Mohamed Elfran Ali has established a safety and compliance audit team to undertake a comprehensive review of
00:07the safety and compliance standards governing marine vessels operating in Guyana as part of his government's response to the tragic
00:15sinking of the MV Barima on July 18th.
00:18President Ali made the announcement on Friday after the Commission of Enquiry into the MV Barima tragedy was formally sworn
00:24in on Thursday including two Trinidad and Tobago nationals, retired Rear Admiral Hayden Pritchard and Attorney Nairie Alfonso who has
00:34expertise in maritime law.
00:35The other members of the Commission include Senior Maritime Surveyor and Compliance Auditor with the Maritime Authority of Jamaica, Captain
00:42Hamada Fowder, and Forensic Naval Architect Dr. Andrzej Jasianowski from Poland.
00:48The Chairman, Justice Godfrey Philip Smith of Belize, was sworn in virtually.
00:53Even as we continue to mourn those who lost their lives and stand in solidarity with the survivors and their
01:02loved ones, and we have an equal soul and duty to establish the truth, our nation deserves a full fair
01:11and impartial account of what occurred, why it occurred, and what must be done to ensure that such a tragedy
01:20is never repeated.
01:21In addition to having Trinidad and Tobago nationals on the Commission of Enquiry, Guyana has also been receiving assistance from
01:28a Trinidad and Tobago military vessel whose crew arrived last week.
01:32An update was provided in an interview on Guyana's NCN earlier this week.
01:37I'm Lieutenant Neville Tyler Ferraz of Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard, and currently the commanding officer of TTS Space ID,
01:47the vessel we are currently on, Trinidad and Tobago 2.5.
01:49We have utilized our seven-man dive team that has been embarked on board from Trinidad in the assistance with
01:56dive and recovery operations at the wreck site.
02:01Lieutenant Ferraz spoke about the challenges the divers have been facing.
02:05Due to the proximity to the coastline, it is very low-vis down there, such that a lot of the
02:10divers are unable to see, like, their hands in front of their face, anything more than a foot.
02:14It is due to the embodiment and murkiness of the seabed, and the more it is agitated during the recovery
02:20efforts and the movement of the vessel, it is the more poorly visibility becomes.
02:27As I said, that in conjunction with the tidal stream that occurs right at the river's mouth, it tends to
02:33have the divers have to take pauses in between.
02:36He also spoke about another aspect of the space side's operations.
02:40I would say the challenge of the depth would be one of the challenges for me in terms of visual
02:45search operations.
02:47However, with the two-door craft embarked, we have a tailored approach to those searches and try to utilize the
02:53vessels on board as best as possible.
02:55On Friday, the government of Guyana said the coordinated search and recovery operations in relation to the incident involving the
03:01MV Barima remain ongoing.
03:02There was no change in the number of persons rescued, 77, or the number of bodies recovered, which stands at
03:1073.
03:11Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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