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Whale-Watching Boat Sinks Near Tofino, British Columbia Five Britons Died in Boat Sinking Off Canada; One Rider Remains Missing
(about 9 hours later)
A whale-watching boat carrying more than two dozen people sank off the coast of British Columbia on Sunday, killing at least five, officials said. OTTAWA — The five people known to have died when a whale-watching boat sank off the coast of British Columbia on Sunday were British, according to Philip Hammond, the British foreign secretary. Twenty-one people were rescued from the sinking, and one person remained missing on Monday.
Melissa Kia, a spokeswoman for the Royal Canadian Navy, said the ship sank around 5 p.m. with 27 people on board in the waters near Tofino, British Columbia, a popular vacation spot on the west coast of Vancouver Island. “My thoughts are with the family and friends of all those affected by this terrible accident,” Mr. Hammond said in a statement on Monday that did not identify the victims or say where they lived.
Five people were confirmed dead, 21 were rescued and one was missing, said Lt. Cmdr. Desmond James, a spokesman for the rescue agency that was staffed by Canadian military and Coast Guard personnel, The Associated Press reported. Lt. Paul Trenholm of the Royal Canadian Navy, speaking for a rescue center operated by the military and the coast guard, said the boat sank Sunday afternoon about eight nautical miles from Tofino, a popular vacation spot on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
The mayor of Tofino, Josie Osborne, said that residents had donated food or clothing and that some had opened their homes to survivors. She said the town was “a very small, tightknit coastal community with a strong fishery and forestry background.” After its crew sent a distress call, the boat was quickly located by four coast guard boats and a large number of private vessels, many from a coastal aboriginal reserve. The boat was found partly submerged, with its bow rising above the water.
“We make most our living from ecotourism like whale watching and wildlife watching,” Ms. Osborne said. “A tragedy like this just hits home so hard.” “It was largely because of the quick response of the local coast guard and the local community that this turned out the way it did,” Lieutenant Trenholm said.
The ship, the Leviathan II, was owned by a local business, Jamie’s Whaling Station. Its website describes the ship as a 65-foot-long, three-deck cruiser that could accommodate 46 passengers on cruises through Clayoquot Sound and the whale-rich waters off the coast of Vancouver Island. A Royal Canadian Air Force plane and helicopter joined in the search for survivors, which ended late in the evening. The coast guard beached the submerged boat around midnight.
The cause of the accident was unclear. Video posted online by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation showed emergency medical workers in Tofino gathered on a long wooden dock that stretched over the placid waters north of town. Green mountains ringed the inlet, and gray clouds hung in the sky overhead. The mayor of Tofino, Josie Osborne, said that residents had donated food and clothing for the survivors and that some had opened their homes. Ms. Osborne said the town was “a very small, tight-knit coastal community with a strong fishery and forestry background.”
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada said in a statement that it was investigating the accident. “We make most our living from ecotourism, like whale watching and wildlife watching,” the mayor said. “A tragedy like this just hits home so hard.”
The sunken boat, the Leviathan II, was owned by a local business, Jamie’s Whaling Station. Its website describes the boat as a 65-foot three-decked cruiser that could accommodate 46 passengers on cruises through Clayoquot Sound and the whale-rich waters off Vancouver Island.
In 1998, a much smaller boat belonging to the same company was swamped by a large wave. Its operator and a passenger died, and two others were rescued. An investigation by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada concluded that the operator did not “fully appreciate the conditions the boat would meet at the time of the accident in the turbulent waters in the vicinity of reefs.”
Investigators from the agency were on their way to Tofino on Monday.
The cause of the latest accident remained unclear. Lieutenant Trenholm said that at the time of the sinking, there was “a bit of wave action, but nothing out of the ordinary,” and the water temperature was about 10 to 12 degrees Celsius (50 to 54 degrees Fahrenheit). It is possible to survive for several hours in water that cold.