Five British tourists dead after whale-watching accident near Tofino

(By Geordon Omand and Terri Theodore, The Canadian Press)  Five people are dead and another is missing after a whale watching ship capsized Sunday off the west coast of Vancouver Island, triggering a rescue effort that saw 21 others who were on board the vessel brought ashore.  The UK’s foreign secretary says the five people confirmed dead were British tourists. Philip Hammond says consular staff in BC are supporting the family members of those who have died and we will remain in close contact with Canadian authorities as further information becomes available.  Lt.-Cmdr. Desmond James of the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre said the search was called off late Sunday night and the RCMP was handling it as a missing-person case.

“Fortunately, we did manage to rescue 21 people,” he said.

Various sources including the Transportation Safety Board and the area’s newly elected MP identified the boat as the Leviathan II, a 20-metre vessel belonging to the local whale watching outfit Jamie’s Whaling Station.

“It has been a tragic day. Our entire team is heartbroken over this incident and our hearts go out to the families, friends and loved ones of everyone involved,” the owner, Jamie Bray, said in a statement.

“We want to extend our most sincere thank you to the first responders, rescue personnel, and everyone from Tofino and the local First Nations communities who assisted with the response efforts.”

The Leviathan had 24 passengers and three crew members on board at the time of the incident, emergency officials said.
Nearby boats that attended the ship’s mayday call on Sunday around 4 p.m. found it partially submerged about 15 kilometres northwest of Tofino.
Some of the first boats to arrive were from the nearby Ahousaht First Nation, said aboriginal Coun. Tom Campbell.
He was on the Tofino waterfront and watched as rescue personnel brought several of the survivors ashore.

“Their looks tell the whole story,” he said by telephone from Tofino. “You can’t describe looks on people that are lost. They look totally lost – shocked and lost.”

Campbell, who wasn’t on the water, said his cousin pulled at least eight people from the water into a boat on Sunday afternoon.
Valerie Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Vancouver Island Health Authority, said 18 people were brought to the Tofino General Hospital.
Three who were more seriously injured were transferred to other hospitals on Vancouver Island and were in stable condition, Wilson said. The condition of the others wasn’t known.
Joe Martin, a member of the Tal-o-qui-aht First Nation, was near the dock in Tofino when the rescue boats began returning to the tourism community.

“I did see a boat come in with three bodies on board and then another one arrived and there were two.”

Martin said two people were brought in on a Zodiac, where workers tried to resuscitate them but eventually covered them with blankets.
He said his brother and nephew were out halibut fishing when they saw the overturned boat and tried to help. Instead, the men pulled in three bodies, he said.
The ship was on the far side of Vargas Island in Clayoquot Sound, an area that Martin said could get really rough.

“It wasn’t even blowing hard (Sunday). This is the largest boat in Tofino and I was really surprised that it went down.”

Rami Touffaha with Burnaby Tours and Charters watched yesterday’s effort from a Tofino dock, where emergency crews brought rescued passengers. “There were paramedics doing CPR on people in the boat and using the defibrilator and such.”

“It’s kind of sad to end such a beautiful day like that. It was really nice here; the waters were really calm on the inside waters where the accident happened.”

Sheila Simpson was visiting from Denman Island and also watched the rescue effort.

“There was one boat that came in with the critically wounded. They just flew in here and they are incredible boats-people, they just turned the boat around, the paramedics were down there, working with those who were critical. One didn’t make it. He was lying under a blanket or under a white sheet, but they had to work on those who were really injured.”

Meanwhile, community members in Tofino rallied to offer help, bringing food, blankets and clothing to survivors and rescuers alike.
The mayor of Tofino commended locals for their contributions.

“Everybody’s heart is just breaking for what’s going on here and wanting to be as helpful as possible,” said Josie Osborne in a telephone interview late Sunday.

John Forde, who runs The Whale Centre, another whale watching operation in the community, also responded to the call for help.

“It’s a pretty sad situation when you’re doing a grid pattern to an area hoping to see something,” he said, adding that he didn’t know what might have happened.

“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 Jamie’s Whaling Station was one of the first such whale watching operations on the west coast of Vancouver Island and had been around for many years.
This isn’t the first fatal incident on the company’s record. In 1998 one of their smaller vessels capsized during a sightseeing excursion, sending all four people on board into the water, the Transportation Safety Board said. The operator and one of the passengers died.
The board confirmed it was investigating Sunday’s incident.