Smith Island incident brings multiple rescue units to assist crab fisherman

Crew members from the Port of Prince Rupert patrol vessel
Charles Hays are being credited for their fast response to a marine
incident near Smith Island on Tuesday
(Photo from Port of PR)

A call  for marine assistance over the noon hour on Tuesday, sent a number of responders towards the Smith Island area racing to offer assistance to a crab fisherman in distress, with the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue Station 64,  Canadian Coast Guard and Port of Prince Rupert patrol vessel all charting a course to the  area due south of Port Edward.

As the account on the RCMSAR Station 64 Facebook tells the story, the fishermen had become entangled with the gear on the vessel and had been pulled underwater, remaining submerged for close to 3 to 4 minutes before finally being freed by crew members.

The closest vessel at the time to the Smith Island area was the Port Vessel Charles Hays which arrived shortly after the call for assistance was issued, upon arrival crew members attended to the unresponsive patient and then stabilized his condition.

At that point they were joined by fast response vessels from the Prince Rupert Coast Guard Base and the RCM SAR 64 vessel Geoff Gould to provide for advanced medical care.


The patient was then taken by the Charles Hays to Porpoise Harbour dock for further transport by BC
Ambulance to Prince Rupert Regional Hospital.

At last report, the patient was recovering at the hospital.

In the post to their Facebook page, which you can read here, the RCM SAR group pay tribute to the work of the Hays crew in saving a life, as well as the level of cooperation that all the responders were able to deliver on the call for service.

You can review more notes about Emergency Responders in the Northwest from our archive page here.

To return to the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.