Three die as fishboat sinks north of Tofino

A commercial fishing boat sank Saturday off the west coast of Vancouver Island, killing three of the four crew members.

The boat capsized and sank in the ocean about 55 kilometres west of Estevan Point, north of Tofino, said navy Lt. Nicole Murillo with the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre.

The coast guard was called out at about 10 p.m. Saturday. Two men were discovered Sunday morning and confirmed dead, said Murillo, while the search continued into Sunday afternoon for a missing third crew member.

The missing man’s body was spotted by a helicopter and recovered about 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Murillo said.

Three coast guard vessels and a helicopter were searching for him, with several other fishing vessels in the area also trying to help, said coast guard spokesman Dan Bate.

A fourth crew member, the sole survivor, was rescued about 1:30 a.m. Sunday. He was taken aboard the MS Statendam, a Holland America cruise ship in the area bound for Victoria, and treated for mild hypothermia, said Bate. The rescued man was wearing a personal flotation device, he said.

Early indications suggested that the three men who died were not wearing life jackets, Murillo said.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada identified the vessel as the Caledonian.

A spokesman for Pacific Seafood, the U.S.-based company that owns the boat, said the incident was a “terrible tragedy for our entire Pacific Seafood family and our community.”

Daniel Occhipinti, general counsel for Pacific Seafood, said: “We thank God for saving one of our crew, but we are devastated by the loss of our other crewmen. Right now we are focused on our people and their families. We do not yet know what caused this tragedy, but we will do a full investigation to find out what happened.”

“We appreciate everything the Canadian Coast Guard has done to help rescue and search for our crew,” he said.

The Transportation Safety Board is sending an investigator to the scene to obtain further information about the incident, said TSB spokesman Chris Krepski. “Loss of life on fishing vessels is something that we are concerned with as a board,” Krepski said, adding that the issue is one of eight highlighted on the TSB’s watch list.

The watch list is a public record of the “issues posing the greatest risk to Canada’s transportation system,” according to the TSB website. “In each case, the TSB has determined that action taken to date is insufficient and more needs to be done to eliminate the risks,” the website reads.

A commercial vessel sinking in B.C. waters with multiple fatalities is “a rare occurrence,” Bate said. But he said this weekend’s incident was similar to the 2004 sinking of the Hope Bay, a 22-metre fishing boat that capsized and sank in Queen Charlotte Sound north of Vancouver Island, killing three crew members.

It was not immediately clear what caused the Caledonian to capsize and sink, but Murillo said it’s believed the men were bringing in a fishing net when the boat began to list.

Strong winds were recorded Saturday evening in the area where the boat was fishing, reaching 30 to 50 km per hour, said Environment Canada meteorologist Louis Kohanyi.