Australian man's body found after Canada whale-watching accident

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/19/australia-man-found-leviathan-ii-boat-accident-canada

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The body of an Australian man missing since a whale-watching boat capsized last month was recovered off Canada’s Pacific coast, the British Columbia Coroners Service said on Thursday.

Raveshan Morgan Pillay, 27, was listed missing after the Leviathan II boat was hit by a wave and capsized on 25 October off Vancouver Island.

The coroner said surfers found Pillay’s body on the beach of Vargas Island on Wednesday evening.

The boat capsized about eight nautical miles (14.7km) off Tofino, a popular destination for whale watchers that is at the very tip of a peninsula some 200 miles (320km) north-west of Victoria, the capital of British Columbia.

Tofino mayor Josie Osborne said Pillay’s family travelled from Sydney to Tofino after the accident, but returned back to Australia last week.

Pillay’s family told the Tofino and surrounding communities that had they experienced “kindness after kindness” in a thank-you letter published in the local newspaper after their departure.

“Every shop we walked into was welcoming, every person we spoke with so kind,” said the letter addressed to the communities of Tofino, Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht.

“Nobody is to blame. We lost our son, but we only lost his physical body. His spirit is here. And we gained a family, friends, a community. We will be back.”

The letter included a long list of thank-yous and was printed on 11 November in the Westerly News.

Related: Whale-watching accident: Australian victim slipped from girlfriend's hands

Pillay’s girlfriend and her family were also on board the vessel when it capsized, and his girlfriend’s father was among the six people confirmed dead.

The victims, two of whom were British nationals living in Canada, were identified as David Thomas, 50, and his 18-year-old son Stephen, from Swindon in southern England; Katie Taylor, 29, of Whistler, British Columbia; Nigel Francis Hooker, 63, of Southampton, England, and Jack Slater, 76, of Toronto.

Officials said the passengers were sightseeing on one side of the upper deck when a wave hit from the opposite side, flipping the boat, tossing 27 tourists and crew into the water.

The Coroners Service, Transportation Safety Board and Royal Canadian Mounted Police were continuing to investigate the cause of the incident, reviewing the weather, wreckage and maintenance history of the 20-meter (65ft) boat.

Life jackets were not required on the vessel, and it appeared the tourists were not wearing them at the time, an initial coroner’s investigation found.

A senior employee of Jamie’s Whaling Station, the company operating the boat, said the vessel sank so quickly the crew did not have time to issue a mayday call. The crew shot flares from the water which attracted the attention of local aboriginal fishermen who rushed to help rescue people, said Corene Inouye, the company’s director of operations.