Island Sealers Crawl Back to Port After Deadly Start to Hunting Season

By Jonathan Montpetit, THE CANADIAN PRESS

ILES-DE-LA-MADELEINE, Que. – Seal hunters limped back to port Monday from a disastrous start to their annual hunting season, which saw punishing ice floes and a failed rescue mission that claimed at least three lives.

As the sleepless hunters set foot on land, their tales of what happened to the ill-fated L’Acadien II raised questions about how the Canadian Coast Guard handled the operation.

Three men died and one remained lost at sea after L’Acadien II flipped over while it was under tow early Saturday from a coast guard icebreaker.

“When you’re being towed by the coast guard it’s supposed to be safe,” said Charles Poirier, captain of the Emy Serge. “What happened? Was there negligence? Was it an accident?”

Hunters consider such towing operations routine. Many of those returning home Monday were grim-faced and tight-lipped about the weekend’s events, when a boat in their fleet stalled and called the coast guard for a tow.

But several people have now indicated there were several irregularities about Saturday’s rescue.

Jocelyn Chiasson, a crew member of the Emy Serge, said it’s unusual for large icebreakers to pull a boat as small as the 12-metre L’Acadien II.

“The icebreaker is around three times its size,” he said, squeezing his 11-year-old daughter tightly under one arm. “Smaller boats usually tow fishing boats, but they (L’Acadien II’s crew) didn’t want to disrupt the hunt.”

Witnesses aboard Madelinot War Lord, the boat following L’Acadien II, have said the icebreaker appeared to be going too fast with nobody watching the towed boat. Wayne Dickson, captain of the Madelinot War Lord, said two tow lines were improperly tied.

“It was an accident but it could have been avoided if somebody would have been paying attention and they should have been,” said Dickson from his home on Entry Island, an English-speaking sector of Iles-de-la-Madeleine.

“The boat wasn’t secured properly and it was too far away. It should have been right to the stern, right under the stern of the icebreaker. Those guys weren’t trained.”

Dickson’s crew picked up the only two survivors from L’Acadien II’s six-man crew.

One hunter said he heard shortwave radio reports that L’Acadien II began to sway as it was being towed. It was apparently at a 30 degree angle to the icebreaker when it capsized.

“There should have been somebody watching L’Acadien II,” said the hunter, who asked not to be identified.

But Chiasson urged caution at leaping to conclusions in the heated atmosphere immediately after the accident.

“We’re all emotional over the drama because we always say when we’re with the coast guard we’re supposed to be safe,” Chiasson said. “It was an accident, we don’t want to blame anyone.”

Many captains have described the ice in the North Atlantic as the worst they’ve seen in years. Pressure caused by the ice floes was blamed for the loss of another Madelinot seal hunting boat over the weekend.

The seven crew members of the Annie Marie managed to jump to a nearby ice floe when their vessel began to take in water. They were later rescued by helicopter.

The crews of six of the boats that set off with L’Acadien II last week were welcomed Monday by relieved friends and family at the docks in the Iles-de-la-Madeleine.

As the boats emerged from the ice floes, the boats cut their engines in unison for a moment of silence before embarking on the final leg of the trip.

The half-dozen that arrived Monday formed a cortege of sorts as they arrived in the harbour, a sign of solidarity for those who went down with L’Acadien II.

The captain of the overturned trawler, Bruno Bourque, and sealers Gilles Leblanc and Marc-Andre Deraspe died in the accident.

The remaining half-dozen boats that were hunting with L’Acadien II were having trouble negotiating thick ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and were scheduled to pull into the harbour by Tuesday.

Fisheries and Oceans Minister Loyola Hearn announced Monday that an independent review will be held into coast guard’s towing policy.

The mayor of the small island community continues to call on the coast guard to resume its search for the missing sailor, 31-year-old Carl Aucoin.

“Political pressure is now being applied on the coast guard, the Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans, and Transport Canada to push for the continuation of the search,” Joel Arseneau told reporters.

“We were told the conditions are very difficult.”

Aucoin’s family acknowledges there is little hope of finding him alive, but want to have the body to help with their mourning.

Arseneau said late Monday afternoon that autopsies had yet to be completed in Halifax on the bodies of the three hunters, contrary to earlier reports.

A civic funerals is to be held at the end of the week.

The hunters will be keeping a close eye on the weather conditions, anxious as they are to resume as soon as the ice begins to soften.

But with the deaths aboard L’Acadien II still fresh, weather might not be the only factor that prevents them from returning to the unforgiving icy waters of the North Atlantic.

“We’ll have to check with the women first,” said Chiasson.