fishingbc
Active Member
VICTORIA — A search and rescue mission is underway today for a chartered fishing boat carrying a guide and three fishermen that has been missing off the northwest coast of the Island since Monday.
The search began Monday around 7:30 p.m., about half an hour after the Qualicum River 9, a six-metre aluminum fishing boat, was scheduled to return to the Qualicum Rivers Fishing Charters and Lodge in Winter Harbour, according to rescue centre spokesman Gerry Pash.
The boat had last been seen that morning when it left for the fishing excursion north of Brooks Peninsula and the last radio communication was around 9:30 a.m., Pash said.
Staff at the lodge contacted the Victoria Joint Rescue Coordination Centre. Coast Guard vessels, a Cormorant helicopter and a fixed-wing Buffalo aircraft from CFB Comox were dispatched, searching the foggy waters amid winds of more than 30 kilometres an hour, Pash said.
There was no mayday sent from the vessel and it’s unknown if the vessel has an electronic positioning indicator beacon, he said.
Today, more aircrafts have been sent out to join the search, which spans 100 nautical miles between Quatsino Sound and Nootka Sound and 35 nautical miles to sea.
Port Hardy RCMP have also been notified of the missing vessel.
Pash could not say where the fishermen were from, but said there was some indication they are American.
“We’ve got a lot of resources dedicated to this,” he said. “We just want to find them and make sure they’re safe.”
Qualicum Rivers Fishing Lodge, owned and operated by the Knutson family, opened in Qualicum Beach in 1994 and expanded to offer fishing charters out of Winter Harbour in 1999.
A man who answered the phone at the lodge said staff has been instructed by police not to talk to the media
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/...arrying+four/3354867/story.html#ixzz0veFsBUr9
The search began Monday around 7:30 p.m., about half an hour after the Qualicum River 9, a six-metre aluminum fishing boat, was scheduled to return to the Qualicum Rivers Fishing Charters and Lodge in Winter Harbour, according to rescue centre spokesman Gerry Pash.
The boat had last been seen that morning when it left for the fishing excursion north of Brooks Peninsula and the last radio communication was around 9:30 a.m., Pash said.
Staff at the lodge contacted the Victoria Joint Rescue Coordination Centre. Coast Guard vessels, a Cormorant helicopter and a fixed-wing Buffalo aircraft from CFB Comox were dispatched, searching the foggy waters amid winds of more than 30 kilometres an hour, Pash said.
There was no mayday sent from the vessel and it’s unknown if the vessel has an electronic positioning indicator beacon, he said.
Today, more aircrafts have been sent out to join the search, which spans 100 nautical miles between Quatsino Sound and Nootka Sound and 35 nautical miles to sea.
Port Hardy RCMP have also been notified of the missing vessel.
Pash could not say where the fishermen were from, but said there was some indication they are American.
“We’ve got a lot of resources dedicated to this,” he said. “We just want to find them and make sure they’re safe.”
Qualicum Rivers Fishing Lodge, owned and operated by the Knutson family, opened in Qualicum Beach in 1994 and expanded to offer fishing charters out of Winter Harbour in 1999.
A man who answered the phone at the lodge said staff has been instructed by police not to talk to the media
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/...arrying+four/3354867/story.html#ixzz0veFsBUr9
