Fishing boat capsizes north of Tofino leaving 3 dead

Three people are dead after a commercial fishing boat capsized off the West Coast of Vancouver Island, north of Tofino, Saturday night.

Only one of four people aboard the boat survived.

Lt. Nicole Murillo with the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) said rescue crews were first notified around 10 p.m. PT Saturday after the fishing company that owns the 33-metre long dragger called to report one of its boats had failed to check in. 

Searchers began scouring the area and early Sunday morning discovered the bodies of two crew members floating in the water. Another crew member was found alive.

"We found one crew member in a life raft who'd been wearing an inflatable life jacket," Murillo said. "He was taken to a nearby cruise ship and subsequently he was transferred from the cruise ship to a Victoria hospital."

Another person was originally listed as missing and a search was launched. However, sometime after 2 p.m. PT Sunday, a Cormorant search helicopter spotted a body floating in the water. It turned out to be the missing crew member.

Boat capsized while men fished

Glenn Budden, a marine investigator at the Transportation Safety Board, said the vessel capsized while the men were fishing.

"They were in the process of bringing the catch aboard when the vessel capsized," Budden said. "All four people on board ended up in the water, with only one survivor."

A spokesman for Pacific Seafood, the company that owns the vessel said in a statement that he doesn't know what caused the accident but described it as a "devastating tragedy for our entire Pacific Seafood family and our community,"

Daniel Occhipinti, general counsel for Pacific Seafood, said: "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."

The JRCC said the vessel's last reported position was in the waters off Kyuquot, north of Tofino.