Emergency crews were called to rescue dozens of passengers from a B.C. whale watching boat that struck a rock off the coast of Washington state.
The 18-metre catamaran hit the rock at around 12:30 p.m. Thursday in the eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, which responded to the accident.
Ted Harris-Means, a Spokane, Washington resident, was in Victoria to celebrate his honeymoon. The couple made a last-minute decision to go on the whale watching tour and said they got more adventure than they bargained for.
“It was a little exciting; we were never all that scared,” Harris-Means told CTV News.
He was on the bow of the catamaran when it struck the rock.
“I saw something really dark in the water and I thought, ‘That’s just a really big chunk of seaweed.’ Sure enough, it wasn’t. About a second it passed underneath me, I heard a loud crashing noise and the boat kind of lurched up a couple of inches,” he said.
“When they turned back around to Victoria, it was clear the boat wasn’t performing like it had been earlier in the day.”
The impact caused the whale watching boat to begin taking on water, but the captain quickly beached the vessel at nearby Smith Island to prevent it from sinking.
The boat is operated by Eagle Wing Tours, which confirmed there were 43 passengers and six crew members on board. Shortly after the accident, the company said everyone was safe and in life jackets.
Eagle Wing sent two more vessels to help U.S. authorities with the rescue effort.
“They did a great job. The crew responded with absolute professionalism and even with a little bit of humour, and it kept everybody calm,” Harris-Means said.
The closest land mass to the area where the whale watching boat beached is Whidbey Island, located about nine kilometres away.
