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An RCMP underwater recovery team is now searching for a capsized vessel that sank off the shores of Richmond, B.C., on Sunday.
Police said Tuesday that they believe the boat sank in waters that are between 150 and 180 metres deep.
For comparison, Living Shangri-La, Vancouver’s tallest building, is just under 201 metres tall.
“They are going to have to try and utilize some technology like underwater drones, things of that nature, with the recovery,” Richmond RCMP Cpl. Frank Bryson told CBC News.
“I don’t think divers can go down deep, so they are going to have to use some of those tools.”
Four men and two women are presumed drowned after a commercial charter boat sank in the Strait of Georgia, while four people were rescued.
Also on Tuesday, the Transportation Safety Board announced that it had deployed a team to investigate the incident.
Two men and a woman remain in hospital, while one man has been released.
Police said Monday that two of the survivors had been discharged, but clarified on Tuesday that health-care workers had opted to keep one of them in hospital as a precaution.
The RCMP recovery mission comes after B.C.’s lead search-and-rescue centre suspended the search for survivors on Sunday evening around 9:45 p.m. PT.
Maj. Gregory Clarke, the officer-in-charge of the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) Victoria, said his team’s role is to search for survivors and added the JRCC doesn’t function as a recovery service.
“Our primary mission is to search until … all possibilities of finding survivors and people alive [have] been exhausted,” Clarke told CBC’s The Early Edition on Tuesday.
By darkness on Sunday, Clarke said JRCC crews would have located and rescued any survivors on the surface of the water or shoreline.
The investigation has been turned over to the RCMP, which has expertise in subsurface recovery, according to Clarke.
In response to a request from CBC News for an update on the mission, Richmond RCMP sent an emailed statement Tuesday morning. Their priority, they said, is “reaching and supporting the families of those who are missing and the survivors.”
“This is a complex investigation involving multiple agencies, and we will share updates as more information becomes available.”
On Monday, Prime Minister Mark Carney acknowledged the incident on social media.
“My prayers are with all those impacted by the tragedy in the Strait of Georgia, B.C. — those missing, those who are recovering, and the loved ones who are awaiting answers,” he wrote.
