Newfoundland town on edge as crews search for missing vessel with seven people aboard

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This article was published 19/07/2024 (801 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEW-WES-VALLEY, N.L. – Anxiety gripped a Newfoundland fishing community Friday as a massive search was underway for a missing vessel carrying seven harvesters that hadn’t been heard from in two days.

Mike Tiller, mayor of New-Wes-Valley, N.L., said local fishers were heading out in their private boats to join the search, while people on land gathered together to wait for word about the missing vessel.

The town cancelled its nine-day Crab Festival, set to begin Saturday, out of respect for the families of the missing fishers, he said.

“Our community doesn’t have much to celebrate until we know the outcome of this,” Tiller said in an interview. “If it’s a positive outcome, and seven of those fishermen show up at the wharf, I think it’ll be the biggest celebration we’ve ever had. But right now, celebrating is not on the agenda for anybody.”

The Elite Navigator fishing boat was reported overdue to the Canadian Coast Guard on Thursday afternoon, said Lt.-Cmdr. Len Hickey, with the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax. The vessel’s responder last transmitted a signal at around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday night.

The 15-metre-long boat was carrying seven crew members, five of whom are from New-Wes-Valley, Tiller said. The other two are from coastal towns nearby. New-Wes-Valley is an amalgamation of several small fishing communities along Newfoundland’s northeast coast and home to about 2,000 people.

Four coast guard vessels, a Cormorant helicopter, a Hercules aircraft and a plane from PAL Airlines were searching for the missing boat Friday, along with a fleet of local fishers. A thick bank of fog hampered their efforts on Thursday night, but conditions were clearer on Friday, Hickey said.

“I know they’re considering draft charts as well, just in case the vessel just lost propulsion,” he added.

Coastal communities across Newfoundland and Labrador are knit together by the fishing industry, and by the grief of losing community members to one of the deadliest professions in the country.

“Every community that has been hit by something like this relives it again when they know it’s going on in another part of the province,” Tiller said. “They know the anxiety that’s being felt, they know the worst can happen. And everybody is hoping that this is just a lost fishing vessel.”

Premier Andrew Furey expressed his concern for the missing harvesters and their friends and family in a post to social media Friday morning.

“We will be there to support the community during this challenging time as we hope for a positive outcome,” Furey wrote on X. “Thank you to all those involved in the search effort.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 19, 2024.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax erroneously reported that the boat was last heard from on Thursday night. In fact, it was last heard from on Wednesday night.