Tag Archives: WorksafeBC
Travis Van Hill’s crew was back fishing on Okanagan Lake, but this time without their captain
A month after Travis Van Hill’s shrimp boat capsized on Okanagan Lake, his crew took to the water for the first time. Van Hill drowned when the vessel Western Slope capsized in a windstorm on July 24. His body was recovered Aug. 16. Kim Van Hill, Van Hill’s wife, said two crew members went fishing Thursday night, for the first time without their captain. One former crew member was too traumatized by the incident to return to work. She said the crew paid tribute to Van Hill on their first night back on the water. >click to read< 10:06
Body pulled from Okanagan Lake believed to be captain of fishing boat
Both men who died in a surprise wind storm on July 24 were likely pulled from a pair of Okanagan lakes on the same day. On Wednesday, the body of 26-year-old kayaker Eli Buruca was finally recovered from Kalamalka Lake. “The deceased is believed to be the 55-year old man who went missing when his boat capsized on the night of July 24,” said Cst. Chris Terleski. “However, this cannot be confirmed until a positive identification is made by the BC Coroners Service.” Van Hill was the captain of a commercial fishing boat, which capsized in Okanagan Lake near Ellison Provincial Park around 11 pm on July 24. click to read< 07:58
Missing kayaker’s body found as search moves on to shrimp boat captain
The body of a missing kayaker has been found on Kalamalka Lake. Eli Buruca went missing during a windstorm the night of July 24. Volunteer searchers located Buruca’s body in deep water at the north end of the lake and it was recovered by the RCMP Underwater Recovery Team on Wednesday, says police spokesperson Cpl. Tania Finn. “Our sincerest condolences go out to the family and friends of the deceased,” said Finn. Meanwhile, the search for Travis Van Hill continues on Okanagan Lake, near Ellison Provincial Park. Van Hill went missing during the same storm, when the shrimp boat he was on capsized. >click to read< 10:31
Capsized shrimp boat recovered from Okanagan Lake
The shrimp boat Travis Van Hill was working on the night he is presumed to have drowned is now out of Okanagan Lake. Crews were at Paddlewheel Park boat launch in Vernon Tuesday afternoon, dragging the formerly capsized boat out of the water. The boat has now been dry docked. Kim Van Hill, wife of the missing boat captain, says the boat will be taken away. It took two trucks to pull the vessel out of the water. Van Hill was not found on the boat when it was recovered. Some believed he had been caught in the netting pulled behind the boat, but when the netting was recovered, Van Hill was not among it. Video, >click to read< 09:47
Boat recovery underway one week after B.C. man presumed drowned
Travis Van Hill’s family has been waiting for a full week now for the wreckage of his boat to be pulled from the lake. The commercial fishing boat captain went down with his vessel Monday, July 24 during a storm on Okanagan Lake. His body has yet to be located or resurface. Red tape and paperwork have prevented anyone from retrieving him or his boat, according to Travis’ family. “His body will be decomposed and won’t look like my handsome husband,” wife Kim Van Hill said. But today, Monday, July 31, appears to be the day that action may finally take place. >click to read< 16:51
Frustration grows as captain still missing, boat still submerged in Okanagan Lake
It’s been more than three days and there is still no sign of Travis Van Hill, whose shrimp boat capsized on Okanagan Lake during a storm Monday night, July 24. The boat captain’s wife, Kim Van Hill, is frustrated by the amount of red tape around rescuing her husband’s remains from the boat, the tip of which can be seen poking above the waters of Okanagan Lake near Ellison Provincial Park.“A dive team from Vancouver, the dive lead, said he’s never been in this type of rescue and he’s been doing it for 16 years,” she said of the process which has taken too long to recover Travis’ body. It is presumed that Travis is trapped in the boat, and Kim explained that WorkSafeBC needs to sign off on the recovery before the RCMP dive team can retrieve Travis from the boat. >click to read< 09:56
Fisherman missing on Okanagan Lake identified by family
Maddy Pool identified the missing man as her step-father, Travis Van Hill. She says Van Hill was working last night on a boat that fishes for shrimp at night. According to Pool, no storm was forecasted last night, which is why the boats went out. She said the company is “really smart” about storms. “There were two boats out there last night. The one boat made it in safe and the other one didn’t, which was the one that my stepdad was on.” The boat capsized near Ellison Provincial Park at the north end of the lake, and being that Van Hill was working, WorkSafeBC has been called in. >click to read< , and here. 10:50
British Columbia – Crew Safety Training – Prepare And Protect your Crew from Coronavirus
WorkSafeBC and Transport Canada regulations set a high standard for training where emphasis is placed upon ensuring that both operational and emergency training occurs before work begins. In addition to this, COVID-19 has created new requirements for vessel owners and masters as they are now responsible for training crew on the vessel-specific protocols that are designed to protect the health of crew and the communities they interact with while fishing. >click to read< 13:45
Big Bar Landslide: Concern over delays, contract cost as salmon populations face possible extinction
The federal NDP critic for fisheries is calling for more oversight of the cleanup project at B.C.’s Big Bar landslide following news of tripling contract costs and worker safety concerns. Construction giant Peter Kiewit Sons’ contract to clear the slide from the Fraser River was awarded in December at $17.6 million, but has since been amended more than a dozen times and is now worth more than $52.5 million. Earlier this month, three rocks fell unexpectedly from a slope above where crews have been working. It happened overnight and no one was hurt, but WorkSafeBC is now investigating. The Big Bar landslide dumped 75,000 cubic metres of rock into the Fraser in a remote area north of Lillooet some time in late 2018, but it wasn’t reported until June 2019. The landslide completely blocked migration routes for several salmon runs,,, >click to read< 12:14
Commercial fishing crews in B.C. now required to wear life-jackets on deck
The organization that oversees worker safety in British Columbia is taking steps to reduce risks faced by commercial fishing crews. WorkSafeBC says all crew members on the deck of a fishing vessel must now wear a life-jacket or personal flotation device. Until the amendment took effect June 3, workers on commercial fishing boats were only required to wear a life-jacket when working under conditions that involved a risk of drowning.,,, The updated regulation stems from Transportation Safety Board recommendations made after the fatal capsizing of the fishing vessel Caledonian near Tofino in September 2015. Three of the four crewmen died and the lone survivor was the only one wearing a life-jacket. >click to read<16:35
WorkSafeBC launches campaign to address fishing-industry safety
“Drowning is the leading cause of death among B.C. fishermen…WorkSafeBC is raising awareness about the importance of wearing life-saving personal flotation devices (PFDs) in the fishing industry,” said a WorkSafeBC press release. The organization’s statistics show that there were 26 work-related deaths in the commercial fishing industry between 2007 and 2017 in B.C., and among those, 16 were drownings. To raise awareness, a new video, Turning the Tide: PFDs in the Fishing Industry, was published by WorkSafeBC, which recounts two stories about commercial fishing workers who lost their lives at sea, and a story about a guide who nearly drowned. Video, >click to read<08:39
Investigation results released after fatal herring boat sinking
The chain of events that led to a fishing boat sinking off Cape Lazo have been released. Back on March 6, 2017, the Miss Cory had been fishing for herring in the Strait of Georgia after sailing out of Comox for the fishery opening that day. The fishing boat was 19.5 metres in length, and based out of Prince Rupert. It had sent out a distress call around 4:30 p.m. in the afternoon, at a location around five and a half kilometres out from Cape Lazo. At the time of the sinking, four crew members were rescued by a nearby vessel, the Proud Venture. One person was unaccounted for and declared missing. >click to read<08:41
