Search and rescue volunteers saved a man near Port Alberni last weekend after he fell overboard from a fishing vessel.
Shortly after midnight on June 26, 2021, a crew from the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue Station 39 in Port Alberni was tasked to assist a person who had fallen overboard from a broken-down fishing vessel in the Alberni Inlet near China Creek.
According to the RCMSAR, the person had reportedly been in the water for two hours, as the remaining crew could not get him back on board. The volunteer crew arrived at the vessel at around 12:50 a.m. aboard the Alberni Responder to find the victim hanging onto a line on the port side of the fishing vessel.
The crew of the Alberni Responder set up a parbuckle—a method of rescuing people from the water via rotation—and removed the man from the water. He was transported by ambulance to West Coast General Hospital.
“It was believed the victim would be OK following treatment at West Coast General Hospital,” said RCMSAR in a Facebook post.
The Coast Guard base in Bamfield also sent vessels to assist in the rescue effort, and the broken-down vessel was towed back to Port Alberni.
