B.C. Coroners Service provides recommendations following Leviathan II investigation

The B.C. Coroners Service has deemed that all six deaths during a whale watching trip off the coast of B.C. in 2015 were an accident.

The Coroners Service is recommending that the province require life jackets be worn by all passengers on the outer decks of vessels carrying more than 12 passengers. The Coroner concluded that the six passengers died from drowning as a consequence of saltwater immersion.

“Part of our role is to provide recommendations to prevent similar deaths in the future,” Jess Gunnarson of The B.C. Coroners Service said.

“The B.C. Coroners Service is a fact-finding, not fault-finding agency.”

The coroner is also recommending a review of regulations regarding the expansion of using emergency position indicating radio beacons.

The Coroners Service, RCMP and the Transportation Safety Board all investigated following the capsizing on the Leviathan II.

The Coroner’s report, released on Tuesday, found not all passengers were wearing flotation aids, which is optional for passengers on an outer deck, according to Transport Canada regulations. The report also found the emergency radio beacon was late sending a distress call.

1:54 TSB release findings into sinking of Leviathan II near Tofino

“Following the capsizing of the Leviathan II approximately 20 minutes elapsed before a distress signal could be successfully transmitted, during which time the passengers were in the cold water without flotation aids, hindering their chances of survival,” the report said.

Last June, the Transportation Safety Board concluded that a large, breaking wave caused the vessel to flip.

The board made three recommendations, including that all commercial passenger vessels operating beyond sheltered waters carry emergency radio beacons that activate automatically to transmit a boat’s position.

The coroner said the ship’s owner, Jamie’s Whaling Station, began initiating changes to its procedures and practices to prevent further incidents ahead of the transportation board’s report.

Those changes include mandatory radio check-ins every 30 minutes, improved access to life jackets on vessels and the addition of emergency position-indicating radio beacons to all vessels, the report said.