On October 25, 2015, the

whale watching Whale watching is the practice of observing whales and dolphins ( cetaceans) in their natural habitat. Whale watching is mostly a recreational activity (cf. birdwatching), but it can also serve scientific and/or educational purposes.Hoyt, E. 2 ...

boat ''Leviathan II'' capsized in the vicinity of Plover Reef off the coast of

Vargas Island Vargas may refer to: People *Vargas (surname), including a list of people with this surname *Getúlio Vargas, 14th and 17th President of Brazil **Getúlio Vargas, Rio Grande do Sul, a Brazilian municipality *"Vargas", also "Varga", signature on wo ...

near

Tofino Tofino ( ) is a town of approximately 2,516 residents on the west coast of Vancouver Island in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The District of Tofino is located at the western terminus of Highway 4 on the tip of the Esowista Penins ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The vessel was struck by a

breaking wave In fluid dynamics, a breaking wave or breaker is a wave whose amplitude reaches a critical level at which large amounts of wave energy transform into Wave turbulence, turbulent kinetic energy. At this point, simple physical models that describ ...

over the reefs and its sinking resulted in the deaths of 6 of its 27 passengers The dead were identified as five men and one woman ranging in age between 18 and 76. Five were British citizens, though two were also Canadian residents, and the sixth was an Australian citizen. The

Transportation Safety Board of Canada The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB, french: Bureau de la sécurité des transports du Canada, BST), officially the Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board (french: link=no, Bureau canadien d'enquête sur les ...

(TSB) said a wave flipped the ship when most of the passengers and crew were on the top deck, raising the center of gravity and making it easier to capsize. The TSB released its final report in June 2017 recommending changes to emergency safety practices. The TSB's recommendations included 1) better precautions from tour boat operators to identify and avoid hazardous waves, 2) that

Transport Canada Transport Canada (french: Transports Canada) is the department within the Government of Canada responsible for developing regulations, policies and services of road, rail, marine and air transportation in Canada. It is part of the Transportati ...

implement and oversee risk management guidelines, and 3) mandatory emergency beacons on seafaring vessels. A plaque was later installed near the wharf in Tofino to commemorate those who died in the capsizing.

References

{{reflist Leviathan II 2015 disasters in Canada