Safety problems cited in boat grounding
Report blames poor lookout and trip planning
Inadequate safety lookout and poor trip planning contributed to a wildlife-viewing boat running aground off Tofino in October 2016, says a safety report released Thursday.
Twenty-six passengers and two crew members had to be rescued on Oct. 1, 2016, after the boat’s master, attempting to maintain a good view of a bear, struck a rock and was unable to get the Stellar Sea free. Two passengers fell and suffered minor injuries.
The trip was organized by Jamie’s Whaling Station, which dispatched two boats to collect the passengers.
Nine people were picked up soon after the 12-metre vessel grounded in Warn Bay, but a falling tide caused the ship to tilt and forced the remaining passengers to wait on a nearby rock until they were rescued. All returned safely within 3 1⁄2 hours.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada identified two significant concerns: insufficient trip planning for where the boat was headed and inadequate onboard lookout to keep watch for hazards such as rocks.
Mohan Raman, Pacific operations manager for the Transportation Safety Board, said in an interview the board finds both were equal contributors to the Stellar Sea’s mishap.
The report criticized the Stellar Sea’s master and the company for failing to alert the Canadian Coast Guard until after the passengers and crew had returned to Tofino.
“It is critical that masters and companies of small passenger vessels alert searchand-rescue services as soon as possible after an accident takes place,” the report says.
“Doing so provides search-andrescue resources with more time to plan the rescue and increases the chances of a successful rescue.
“For example, in situations where people have entered the water, timeliness is paramount, given the high risk of hypothermia and drowning.”
The report says Jamie’s Whaling Station updated its emergency procedures last March to emphasize the requirement to contact the coast guard in an emergency, and increased the frequency of its safety drills.
Ryan Teremy, visitor experience manager at Jamie’s Whaling Station, acknowledged the criticisms and said improvements would be made. “We know we must do better,” Teremy said in an email. “We’ve been in business for more than 35 years and have the trust of our passengers from around the world.”
The Transportation Safety Board also investigated after the company’s Leviathan II whalewatching boat capsized in October 2015 with 27 people on board. Six passengers — five Britons and an Australian — drowned.
Several recommendations came out of the investigation, including better risk management, installation of a safety plan and mandatory emergency beacons. The recommendations were released in June 2017, about eight months after the Stellar Sea grounding.
The Stellar Sea investigation report describes a situation with minimal trip planning. It says the chart plotter was not used in a way that would have alerted the boat’s master to known hazards, and the echo depth sounder was not programmed to warn when waters became too shallow.
The two crew members — a deckhand and the master — were loaded with responsibilities beyond the safe operation of the boat.
The report says the master was expected to keep watch for wildlife, communicate via radio with the company, talk to passengers and the deckhand, pilot the boat and keep watch for hazards. Performing all those tasks at once made it difficult to keep a proper lookout for danger.
Meanwhile, the deckhand doubled as the designated naturalist, sitting with and talking to passengers and looking out for animals. “The deckhand’s activities were focused on the search for wildlife from the passenger area and not on maintaining a lookout for navigational hazards,” the report states.
The boats dispatched to rescue the passengers carried more people than safety certificates recommend — something that is permitted in a rescue situation, but creates unnecessary risk, the report says. “The risk to passengers and crew could have been reduced if the vessel had relayed information to the [Canadian Coast Guard] in a timely manner,” the report states.
The type of outing undertaken by the vessel — seeking out wildlife in shallow, confined waters — carries a high risk of accidents, the report says.
“However, companies and masters can mitigate risks in vessel operations by identifying them and proactively managing them through the effective implementation of riskmanagement processes.”