An RCAF Hercules aircraft scours the waters as members of a ground search and rescue team walk along the shore of the Bay of Fundy in Hillsburn, N.S., on Dec. 15, 2020.Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press
The search for a missing Nova Scotia fisherman who went overboard on Boxing Day morning was suspended early Tuesday afternoon.
Lt. Commander Len Hickey said that despite a robust search effort that carried on overnight Monday and into Tuesday morning, rescue crews were unable to locate the missing man. The file will be handed over to the RCMP to be treated as a missing person case, he said.
“The time of year just makes it that much more tragic,” Hickey said in an interview.
Halifax’s Joint Rescue Coordination Centre received a mayday about a man overboard at 8:21 a.m. Monday, he said. The man had fallen from a 12-metre long fishing vessel about 11 kilometres south of Cape Sable Island, which sits just off Nova Scotia’s southernmost tip.
A Cormorant helicopter and a Hercules aircraft were dispatched to search for the man alongside two Canadian Coast Guard ships, the Cape Roger and Clarks Harbour.
At least a dozen other vessels, including local fishing boats, also pitched in to help, Hickey said.
A plane from PAL Airlines flew in to help the CCGS Cape Roger keep up the search overnight. By Tuesday morning, both coast guard ships were back in the area, as was the Hercules.
“They do have a pattern where their search expands based on sea and wind and all that kind of stuff,” Hickey said. “It’s a substantial search, and it grows based on the environmentals.”
RCMP Sgt. Andrew Joyce said the fisherman is presumed drowned. The police will now help Nova Scotia’s Department of Labour, Skills and Immigration investigate what happened, but the RCMP will not continue the large-scale search efforts undertaken by the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre, he said.
“I think the expectation for the police to go out into deep water and try to search for a person drowned is no longer the case,” Joyce said in an interview. “Our role here is somewhat limited. We’re really assisting in a workplace incident now.”
Joyce said there were at least two other people on the fishing boat when the man went overboard. Police did not release his identity.
“It’s a tragic event, for sure,” Joyce said.