In Islands News

Magdalen Islands Mourn As Three Sealers Drown

Fourth person still missing as boat capsizes

HALIFAX, N.S. -- The search continued Saturday afternoon for a sealer missing in the icy waters off Cape Breton, after their boat capsized killing three fellow sealers.

Canadian Coast Guard officials were able to give few details of how the tragedy happened saying that their immediate priority was finding the missing sealer.

"The concern is to finish the search and rescue for the missing person," said Mike Voigt, superintendent, Canadian Coast Guard Search and Rescue.

The two men who survived the accident were thought to be on the bridge of the boat when it capsized.

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Capsized sealers tell of fight for their lives

Claude Deraspe speaks to the media yesterday.

ILES DE LA MADELEINE, QUE. - Only a few days after surviving a maritime accident that killed four fellow sealers, Bruno-Pierre Bourque and Carl Deraspe spoke yesterday of confusion and terror as they tried to escape from an overturned boat quickly filling with water.

"I was standing in the wheelhouse, except it was upside down because the boat was upside down, and I remember taking a breath, and telling myself [to] wait until the water was up to my ears, because then it would be easier to get out," Mr. Deraspe said. "And I pushed my lips to what was the floor, and took a deep breath and started to swim."

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Graphic: Sealing trawler capsizes

Sealer says he radioed icebreaker to stop

Canwest News Service Published: Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Wayne Dickson says he no longer has the will to hunt after watching his friend's sealing vessel capsize while being towed by a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker in the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the weekend. Mr. Dickson, 53, and his six-member crew managed to rescue two fishermen, but three other sealers drowned and a fourth is still missing after the damaged L'Acadien II fishing vessel overturned while being dragged over a large chunk of ice, about 70 kilometres north of Cape Breton Island. When he is questioned by the RCMP about the incident that claimed the lives of the fishing trawler's captain, Bruno Bourque, and three others asleep below deck, Mr. Dickson says he will tell them that he radioed the icebreaker several times, yelling at the crew to stop after seeing the vessel dragged sideways over the ice.