Six people are presumed dead after a fishing charter sank in the Strait of Georgia off British Columbia, in a tragedy authorities say was compounded by the absence of life jackets on board.
Ten people were aboard the vessel when it went under around midday Sunday off Richmond, near Tsawwassen. The alarm was raised by a nearby sailing boat that saw people struggling in the water and sent out a mayday. Rescuers reached four survivors. The other six, four men and two women, were never found.
On Monday the Royal Canadian Mounted Police confirmed the mission had become a recovery rather than a rescue.
"This now looks more like a recovery than a search just because the timeline," said Stephen Adam of the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue, who added that the vessel "sank relatively fast and we don't know what happened to it."
Of the four pulled from the sea, a 33-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman remained in critical condition, while a 26-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman were released from hospital. The response was vast, pulling together the RCMP, the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Canadian Coast Guard, marine search-and-rescue teams and BC Ferries before being called off at 9:45 p.m. Sunday.
Major Gregory Clarke of the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre said crews had done everything possible. "From our end of things, it's a tragic event. We are confident that we covered the area very thoroughly," he said. "We don't take it lightly, but basically, through all of the avenues, we exhausted all possibilities."
The hardest detail for many anglers will be this: not one person on the boat wore a life jacket. Clarke stressed that flotation buys crucial time, noting survivors "can survive five to 10 hours if they are wearing a flotation device." In the cold water of the strait, going without one slashes those odds.
It is a lesson the coastal fishing community knows but does not always heed. British Columbia's inshore water stays cold even in summer, and cold-water immersion can sap a swimmer's strength within minutes, well before help can arrive across a wide search area.
The recovery effort continues. "The RCMP Underwater Recovery Team has been engaged and will attend the area in the coming days," the force said, with divers and sonar set to locate the wreck on the seabed. What caused the boat to sink is still unknown and under investigation.
Prime Minister Mark Carney acknowledged the responders: "Thank you to the first responders and everyone who have taken part in the search and rescue operation."