As Guyanese fam­i­lies await an­swers fol­low­ing the trag­ic loss of lives aboard the MV Bari­ma, mar­itime ex­perts are warn­ing that Cari­com’s push to re­con­nect the re­gion by sea must be matched by stronger safe­ty sys­tems.

The tragedy has raised ques­tions about whether re­gion­al mar­itime in­fra­struc­ture, emer­gency re­sponse ca­pa­bil­i­ties and reg­u­la­to­ry sys­tems are pre­pared to sup­port greater move­ment of peo­ple and goods across the Caribbean. The con­cerns come as T&T pre­pares to sup­port a re­gion­al fer­ry pi­lot ini­tia­tive, of­fer­ing one of its ves­sels as a tem­po­rary so­lu­tion for a Cari­com car­go trans­port project while pri­vate op­er­a­tors work to­wards es­tab­lish­ing a ded­i­cat­ed ser­vice.

Mar­itime ex­perts say con­nec­tiv­i­ty can­not come at the ex­pense of safe­ty, warn­ing that re­li­able pas­sen­ger records, ef­fec­tive search-and-res­cue co­or­di­na­tion, ves­sel over­sight and trained crews must de­vel­op along­side any re­gion­al fer­ry net­work.