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Members of a dive club were rescued after their boat capsized off the coast of Victoria early Sunday afternoon.
The Joint Rescue Co-Ordination Centre said it received a call at 1:50pm indicating a boat had capsized at Race Rocks, an ecological reserve popular with divers. All nine members were accounted for at that time and the JRCC said two auxiliary Coast Guard vessels arrived within 30 minutes.
Eight of the nine dive club members were wearing dry suits, according to the JRCC. All were taken to Pedder Bay near Victoria where ambulances and one helicopter were waiting. One person was taken to hospital with minor injuries.
The boat was equipped with a handheld radio, making it possible for the members to quickly call the Coast Guard themselves, according to a JRCC spokesperson.
However, in a posting on its Facebook page, the “all-volunteer” Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue station in Victoria said it was tasked with a mayday call “for nine people in the water from an overturned vessel 300m south east of Race Rocks. The scuba divers were in a 14’ open aluminium boat with up to 10′ waves. They were extremely lucky to have been able to call for help and not have Dover’s (sic) down at the time.”
The post continued: “Two divers were treated for hypothermia by BC Ambulance and the Fire Department. This is our third call to Race Rocks for divers with 1 fatality. Please use extreme caution around Race Rocks and only dive there with very experienced divers.”
It also said: “(One person dove under Vessel to retrieve hand held marine radio to call for help) Weather was cause of vessel overturning – sea conditions 4/5 FT waves piling up into 10FT waves.”
Meanwhile, the home church of a British man killed while scuba diving at Race Rocks in July is calling on British Columbia to launch a coroner’s inquest into his death.
Kings Cross Methodist Church in London says an investigation into Timothy Chu’s death should happen both for the sake of public safety and for Victoria’s reputation as a prime tourism destination.
Chu was on vacation in B.C. when he hired a guide for a day of diving on July 5. The 27-year-old British Army lance corporal was carried away by strong underwater tidal currents and his body didn’t surface for seven weeks.
Chu’s family says problems with the business that organized the charter dive may have contributed to his death.
His family says the centre failed to equip Chu properly, proceeded with the dive despite the dangerous conditions and employed a dive master who was unfamiliar with the area.
With Canadian Press files