Buoys placed at mouth of Demerara river to alert seafarers to sunken BK stone barge – MARD

FOLLOWING the incident in which a barge belonging to BK Marine sank at the mouth of the Demerara River on October 27, Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) reported that they have since placed buoys to secure the area in an effort to alert seafarers.

The buoys will be in place until the sunken barge is salvaged.

The loaded BK Marine barge, “DARA B”, sank on Monday night at the mouth of the Demerara River while being towed to Kingston, Georgetown, with a cargo of 2,000 tons of aggregate. The vessel was travelling from BK Quarries at Teperu in the Essequibo River.

The 230 foot barge is now located east of the centre line of the Demerara Main Ships’ Channel, latitude 06 degrees 50.0235 minutes north, longitude 58 degrees 10.0837 minutes west.

TAKE PRECAUTIONS
BK Marine is making every effort to salvage the sunken vessel and wishes to advise all ocean-going vessels to take note of the location and take all necessary precautions while travelling at the location.

According to MARAD at about 22:30 hours on October 27, 2014, the barge with the name DAR ‘B’ while being towed by a tug, ‘KYLE’, on one of its regular voyages from Teperu Quarry in the Essequibo River towards its discharge berth in Kingston, Georgetown when it sank.

MARAD said there were five crew members on board the tug. One of the crew members who may have fallen overboard when the vessel sank was wearing his life jacket. He was quickly rescued. Consequently, there were no casualties.

Prior to officials from MARAD arriving on the scene and securing the area, an outbound ship came into contact with the stone on the sunken barge. It remained stuck in that position for about one hour, but it refloated as the tide began flooding.

SALVAGE OPERATIONS
Navigation in the area was temporarily suspended as officers from MARAD sought to locate and mark the exact position of the wreck and navigation has resumed with vessel traffic control measures being put in place.

Salvage operations should commence shortly, and as with all such occurrences MARAD has launched an investigation.

(By Michel Outridge)

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