The RCMP in British Columbia have located a charter fishing boat that sank in the Georgia Strait more than a week ago, a significant step in a case that has weighed heavily on the region. Finding the vessel gives investigators a fixed point on the ocean floor to focus on, even as some of the most painful questions surrounding the sinking remain unanswered.
According to the RCMP, the boat was found resting at a depth of about 153 metres, far too deep for divers to reach safely. To locate and examine the wreck, the force's underwater recovery team relied on a remote underwater vehicle, guiding the device down to the seabed where the vessel had come to rest.
Crews used the remote vehicle to look around the area of the seabed surrounding the boat. According to the RCMP, they did not see any bodies at the site at this time, meaning the fate of those still missing remained unresolved even after the sunken boat itself had finally been found.
Of the roughly ten people believed to have been on board when the boat went down, six remain unaccounted for. Their disappearance has anchored the investigation, as authorities continue to search for answers about what became of them after the vessel sank in the strait.
There has also been a death among those who were initially pulled from the water. Authorities said that one of the four people who had been rescued has since died in hospital, identifying her as a 28-year-old woman who was a Chinese citizen living in Seattle.
Officials said that everyone who had been aboard the boat was in their 20s or 30s, and that the group had come from British Columbia, Ontario and Washington state. Investigators, they said, are still working to discover what went wrong and caused the vessel to sink in the first place.