An early morning distress call from a fishing boat off Vancouver ended with Coast Guard teams racing to the scene and rescuing two men from the icy waters.
A 61-foot fishing boat sent out a mayday call at 5:15 a.m. Wednesday after the boat went down in Georgia Strait, off Point Grey.
The two fishermen on board were forced to jump into the icy waters after the vessel began sinking.
A tug boat was first on the scene, followed just minutes later by the Coast Guard hovercraft, which arrived 23 minutes after the initial call.
The Rescue Co-Ordination Centre in Victoria said the boat had already sunk when the hovercraft arrived, but the two crewmembers were spotted in the water.
The pair was brought to Spanish Banks beach where they were rushed to hospital. They are now being treated for hypothermia.
This is the first major incident in these waters since the closure of the Kitsilano Coast Guard facility last month.
Critics of the closure have claimed it would dramatically slow response times and put people’s lives in danger.
The Coast Guard crew involved in Wednesday morning’s rescue arrived after being dispatched from the Richmond base, south of Vancouver.
Mike Cotter of the Jericho Sailing Club, who has been a critic of the Harper government decision to close the base, says the men are lucky to be alive because of the physical distance crews need to travel from Richmond to Vancouver.
“The statistical probabilities are that we’re going to lose somebody,” he said.
Former Kitsilano base commander Fred Moxey agrees.
“Those fisherman last night they won the lottery,” he told CTV News.
