Guyana is set to commission a new Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre by the end of next week, allowing its maritime authority to receive satellite distress alerts directly instead of through an airport relay, according to the country’s Department of Public Information.
Retired Captain John Flores, Emergency Operations Coordinator at the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) and a former commander of the Guyana Defence Force Coast Guard, gave the timetable while testifying before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the July 18 sinking of MV Barima.
Distress alerts from the US Mission Control Centre in Maryland are currently received by the air traffic control tower at Cheddi Jagan International Airport in Timehri before being relayed to the Coast Guard, Air Corps and MARAD.
“We will be receiving signals directly from the satellite by the end of next week. So, there’s no need for them to transmit after next week,” Flores said. The new centre will use satellite communications and long-range and medium-frequency radio. Planned coastal sub-centres are expected to increase communications effectiveness to about 90%. “So, you will always have coverage,” Flores said.
Flores said the contract began in March 2025. An unnamed French company built the technical components to standards set by the International Aeronautical and Maritime Search and Rescue Manual and the International Maritime Organisation.
Shortwave radios and other equipment have been installed, while familiarisation training and the formal handover remain to be completed. Staff assigned to the centre have already received Global Maritime Distress and Safety System training, and three personnel are staffing the facility around the clock.
The project followed a 2018 International Maritime Organisation audit and was not initiated by the Barima sinking. During the Barima search-and-rescue operation, the emergency team relied on cellular phones, Starlink, police communications, nearby vessels and the Lighthouse.
MARAD’s Emergency Operations Division was established in October 2023. Until the new centre is formally commissioned, the Lighthouse remains Guyana’s principal maritime distress alerting post.
MARAD was established under the Guyana Shipping Act of 1998 as the country’s national maritime administration. Its responsibilities include ship registration and licensing, seafarer certification, port state control, marine investigations, pilotage, hydrographic surveys, offshore marine operations and maritime search and rescue.
