Gulfstream barge refloated from Tobago to Trinidad

Tobago can now exhale, as the barge responsible for the February 7 oil spill that affected 15 kilometres of shoreline has been refloated and towed to Trinidad. The overturned Gulfstream barge, which has been grounded off Cove, started its journey to Trinidad sometime yesterday morning.

By the time Guardian Media checked its last location around midday, it was nowhere in sight. Tobago Emergency Management Agency director Allan Stewart confirmed the vessel had left the island’s shores.

The voyage from Cove to Port-of-Spain was expected to take about 33 hours. After being refloated yesterday, the barge was three nautical miles from its original location and being supported by tugs.

While this is a significant milestone, it is far from over for Tobago, Chief Secretary Farley Augustine said.

“This is what we have been working towards for months because we don’t really want to keep scrap iron and old boats in our reefs,” Augustine noted.

Now, the island is left to sort out the waste temporarily stored at the Studley Park dump and nurse the ecosystem back to health.

“It was a difficult task to get to that point. The surface current where the vessel was lodged is extremely high; it was extremely dangerous and difficult. But we worked with the Energy Ministry and Coast Guard, Department of Fisheries, and local divers and T&T Salvage.”

He lamented, “In terms of light at the end of the tunnel, it has not changed anything really. We still have enormous bills to be settled from the entire operation. We have a long-lasting impact on the environment that we are now studying, and it will cost us quite a bit of money. But slowly but surely, we are getting there.”

The Tobago House of Assembly sought $153 million in the mid-year budget to deal with debts incurred from the disaster. However, it was allocated $50 million.

Meanwhile, for TEMA, this is the light at the end of the tunnel.

Stewart told Guardian Media, “We wish the journey to Trinidad to be a safe one, and that there are no incidents and everything works smoothly.”

But it was a bitter-sweet moment for speciality diver Alvin Douglas. Douglas was a first responder who led an emergency operation to confirm if there was life in the wreckage.

“We will be able to go back to our premier dive sites. Right now, as it stands, there are around a dozen dive sites we can’t go to because the wreck is there.”

He estimates half a million dollars in losses to the sector.

The temporary facility at Cove has been decommissioned by the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries. Sometime yesterday, a dive team conducted an underwater survey to assess and clear any debris that could affect the towing operation. When this survey was done, the barge was cleared for its transit to Trinidad.

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