Five days after a devastating fire disabled a commercial yellowfin tuna fishing vessel in the remote waters off South America’s northeastern coast, a desperate urgent appeal has gone out to regional governments, maritime agencies and commercial ships to ramp up search-and-rescue operations for the six crew members still missing at sea.
The vessel, identified as the *St. Vincent VII*, owned by Trinidad and Tobago-based Renata Enterprises Ltd, departed Chaguaramas’ Tardieu Marine yard on July 6 with a multi-national crew on a fishing expedition. The team includes four nationals from Trinidad and Tobago, one crew member from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and a Guyanese captain, Eshwar “Shanie” Persaud. Among the Trinidadian crew is Shannon “Joey” Mohammed, whose wife Amanda Suraj has spearheaded the public call for help after days of silence from the vessel.
According to details shared by Suraj, the fire broke out on the vessel at approximately 6:30 a.m. on July 13, while the *St. Vincent VII* was operating near the overlapping maritime borders of Suriname and French Guiana. Within hours of the blaze, the ship lost all power and communication capabilities, leaving no way for the crew to signal for help or share their location. No confirmed sightings of the vessel or any of the crew have been recorded since that initial fire report.
Without power or propulsion, experts say the disabled fishing boat is adrift, carried by prevailing trade winds and Atlantic Ocean currents across the wide expanse of ocean bounded by Suriname, French Guiana and northern Brazil. This vast, remote stretch of sea makes uncoordinated search efforts extremely difficult, prompting Suraj to reach out to regional and international stakeholders for coordinated support.
In an emotional phone interview with *Express* on Tuesday, Suraj said her family has received no credible updates on the crew’s location or status, leaving them in a state of agonizing uncertainty. “We are desperately pleading with regional media houses to broadcast this information immediately to reach as many people in the maritime community as possible,” she stated.
Suraj’s appeal extends to all levels of authority and commercial operators in the region: “We urgently need intervention from neighbouring maritime assets, passing commercial vessels, and local authorities in French Guiana, Suriname, and Brazil to deploy search-and-rescue teams to the area. Any vessel transiting this stretch of water is asked to remain on high alert for any sign of the *St. Vincent VII* or its crew.” She has also called on international search-and-rescue bodies to expand their operating areas to cover the full range of possible drift paths the disabled vessel could have taken, ending her appeal with a quiet note of hope for the safe return of her husband and his five crewmates.