Coast guard rescue vessel launched soon after radio call for B.C. boat

Within five minutes of receiving radio calls to alert them that a whale-watching boat had capsized with 27 people aboard, the Coast Guard base in Tofino had launched a rapid-response rescue vessel.

A timeline of radio traffic released by Coast Guard spokesman Dan Bate shows the team scrambled to respond to emergency calls on Sunday, but arrived too late to help rescue anyone.

The accident left five dead and one missing. Local fishermen hauled in 21 survivors.

Last April, the Coast Guard drew heavy criticism for being slow to respond to an oil spill in English Bay, and poor communications was blamed.

The first rescuers on the scene were from the native village of Ahousaht. They were fishing a few kilometres away when the Leviathan II rolled over. The Coast Guard station is in Tofino, about 18 kilometres away.

The First Nation newspaper Ha-Shilth-Sa reported earlier this week that some of the Ahousaht fishermen who responded were frustrated because they had trouble making their initial radio calls understood by the Coast Guard, resulting in delays.

"First responder Clarence Smith remembers that he turned the radio to channel 16 to reach Tofino Coast Guard. He tried to explain where he was and that all that could be seen of the whale-watching boat was the bow, but the Coast Guard told him they weren't receiving him," Ha-Shilth-Sa reported. "After failing to connect with the Coast Guard, Smith decided he wasn't going to waste any more precious time."

"He turned the radio to Channel 68, the frequency the Ahousahts use."

The report said geoduck fisherman Rob Barton, who was on the dock in Tofino, had to break in to the radio exchange to tell the Coast Guard the caller was reporting people in the water.

Mr. Smith could not be reached immediately for comment. A woman who answered at Mr. Barton's home said he was not talking to the media.

Mr. Bate said because the Transportation Safety Board is investigating the accident, the Coast Guard cannot comment on the Ha-Shilth-Sa report. But he released a brief timeline of the radio traffic that began shortly before 4 p.m. on Sunday.

The Leviathan II, a tour boat operated by Jamie's Whaling Station and Adventure Centres, was returning to port when it suddenly capsized near Plover Reef while the passengers were all on an upper viewing deck, on the port side, watching sea lions on nearby rocks. The TSB has reported the boat went over when it was struck by a wave on the starboard side.

The radio traffic timeline shows that, at 15:46 local time, an unidentified vessel called Tofino Coast Guard. Twenty-seven seconds later, Marine Communications and Traffic Services (MCTS) in Prince Rupert, one of the Coast Guard's coastal communications centres, replied.

"At 15:46:32 hrs - local vessel calls in. Clint Smith, advises he is on a 21ft boat. He has seen a flare and a boat is on the rocks with a life raft in the water," states the record.

Three minutes and 30 seconds later, the Tofino Coast Guard station responds to a call from the Joint Rescue Co-Ordination Centre in Victoria, which co-ordinates military and Coast Guard rescue teams throughout B.C.

"At 15:51 hrs the CCG [Canadian Coast Guard] Fast Rescue Craft Tofino 1 called MCTS Prince Rupert to report that they were underway to the scene," the Coast Guard timeline says.

Four minutes and 41 seconds after the first call for help, the Coast Guard boat was racing across Clayoquot Sound, headed for the reef where a small armada of commercial and sport fishing boats was converging.

At 15:54, with the Coast Guard fast-rescue craft (FRC) still on the way, MCTS in Prince Rupert received a call to say the first survivors were being hauled in by fishing boats.

"The vessel of opportunity that had originally contacted MCTS Prince Rupert advised that they had 3 survivors on board and could see 10 people in a life raft and more on the rocks," states the radio record.

By the time the Tofino fast-rescue craft arrived – 14 minutes after it launched, and 19 minutes after the first call was received, all 21 survivors had been pulled in and five bodies had been recovered.

"The Tofino 1 FRC arrived on scene at 16:05 hrs and provided on-scene situational awareness to the rescue centre," the radio log says.