Barge Down; A Vessel with a Large Quantity of Valuable Cargo Sink off Coast of San Pedro

Tonight, two trucks, a large quantity of construction materials, a trailer full of furniture and twelve brand new golf carts are submerged off the coast of Ambergris Caye, after a barge carrying these items sunk. On Christmas Eve, a tugboat and barge left Belize City en route to San Pedro with three passengers onboard. Several hours into their journey, they encountered rough seas and shortly thereafter the barge went under. Thankfully, there was no one on the barge at the time. The entire crew was on the tug.  However, the loss is significant. The Belize Port Authority has launched an investigation into the occurrence. Today, we spoke via Zoom with Darlin Gaitan, the Acting Ports Commissioner about that investigation.

Darlin Gaitan

Darlin Gaitan, Acting Ports Commissioner, B.P.A.

“The tug and barge left the Belize City harbor en-route to San Pedro and before making it to San Pedro they encountered rough seas. And, subsequently the barge which is currently underwater sunk. So, what we have here is a tug and barge together. So, the crew were onboard the tug and they are all fine. They were rescued before there was any damage to the tug. What you are seeing in the video is actually the markers being placed on the barge. That was not a tug that you see driving off. That was another skiff that came. They basically went to put markers so that the mariners traversing the area are aware that there is an obstruction to navigation. This is all to ensure there are no other vessels running into the barge. There could have been many factors that would have tied into the incident taking place, however at this stage we wouldn’t be able to say what factors contributed. This would have to form a part of an actual inquiry by the harbor master or myself in this case and there after I could also recommend a formal investigation if it is so warranted, based on the findings whether, like you said, what conditions may have caused or contributed to the incident happening. And what you want to do is to prevent any further incidents of this nature. Thankfully in this case we didn’t have any damage to lives, which is first and foremost our priority at the Port Authority. And of course we do have the vessel still submerged, so we do have to take into consideration whatever environmental impacts that may have caused and of course there is also the damage to property because the vessel was taking a lot of equipment and trucks and gulf carts.”