Tour boat tragedy: At least four dead as whale-watching vessel sinks off Vancouver Island in Canada
PUBLISHED : Monday, 26 October, 2015, 12:22pm
UPDATED : Monday, 26 October, 2015, 1:11pm
Reuters in Duncan, British Columbia
A photo of the Leviathan II, posted to Facebook by rescuer Albert Titian. Photo: Facebook/Albert Titian
A Canadian whale-watching tour boat with 27 passengers on board has sunk off the coast of British Columbia off Vancouver Island, killing at least four people, rescue officials said.
A Canadian military rescue helicopter and plane were sent to the waters off the coast of Tofino after the vessel sent a distress signal around 5pm on Sunday, local time, according to a spokesman for the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC). Several other coast guard vessels were involved in the search.
“There were four people recovered without vital signs and the search continues for people still unaccounted for,” the spokesman said.
“It’s dark here now and obviously the priority is getting the people off the water safely.”
The bow of the Leviathan II emerges from the waters off Vancouver Island. Photo: Facebook/Albert Titian
Earlier, the JRCC said there were “fatalities and survivors”. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, citing BC Ambulance, said four people were taken to hospital and five were being treated after being pulled from the water.
The manager of the Shelter Restaurant in Tofino said fishermen and fishing charter companies had joined the rescue effort, with about 15-20 boats leaving the tourist town.
“Practically anyone who can go will go,” said Matthew, who did not give his last name. “People here get together to help when things like this happen.”
The area is popular for whale-watching.
Rescue personnel wait at the government dock in Tofino on Sunday. Photo: Reuters
“All our attention now is on our passengers and crew so we’ll be providing information as soon as the time is appropriate,” said a staff member with Jamie’s Whaling Station and Adventure Centres, which operated the vessel which sank, the 20-metre-long Leviathan II .
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada said it would send a team to Tofino to investigate.
Lieutenant-Commander Desmond Craig, a spokesman for the JRCC, said the boat was partially submerged 12km west of Tofino.
Photos posted on Facebook by a rescuer showed the vessel submerged except for the bow and a portion of the cabin, with the boat vertical in the water.
“Everybody’s heart is just breaking for what’s going on here and wanting to be as helpful as possible,” Craig said.
Boats from the nearby Ahoushat First Nation arrived first on the scene, said aboriginal Councillor Tom Campbell. He was on the waterfront and watched as rescue personnel brought several survivors ashore.
“Their looks tell the whole story,” he said by phone from Tofino. “You can’t describe looks on people that are lost. They look totally lost — shocked and lost.”
Campbell said his cousin pulled at least eight people from the water into a rescue boat.
An ambulance waits to receive survivors from the tragedy in Tofino on Vancouver Island. Photo: Reuters
John Forde, who runs The Whale Centre, another whale-watching operation, responded to the call for help and was told the search was for four or five missing people.
“It’s a pretty sad situation when you’re doing a grid pattern to an area hoping to see something,” he said adding that it didn’t look hopeful as time dragged on without finding more survivors.
“Over the course of a season and years we take out thousands and thousands of people on these trips in conditions similar today. I have no idea what the issue was or what actually happened,” Forde said.
Forde said Jamie’s Whaling Station was one of the first of its kind off Vancouver Island and had been around for many years.
It wasn’t the first fatality on the whale watching company’s record. In 1998 one of its vessels capsized during an excursion, sending all four people on board into the water. The operator and a passenger died.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
