Six presumed drowned after charter vessel sinks near Vancouver

Six people are presumed to have drowned after a charter fishing boat sank off the coast of Richmond, British Columbia.

A major search operation has been called off, with efforts now focused on recovering the vessel.

The boat, carrying ten people, began taking on water near Roberts Bank after leaving Steveston on Sunday (28 June 2026). The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Victoria received a mayday call at about 11.45am local time, reporting several people in the water without life jackets.

Four people were pulled from the water and taken to hospital. A 26-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman have since been discharged, while a 33-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman remain in critical condition.

Richmond Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said on Monday (29 June 2026) that the other six people on board – four men and two women – remain unaccounted for and are presumed drowned.

“Despite extensive multi-agency search efforts conducted yesterday, four men and two women remain unaccounted for and are presumed drowned,” police said in a statement.

“The search has been suspended, and efforts have now shifted to recovery.”

Police have confirmed investigators are working to establish what caused the boat to sink and to confirm the identities of the six missing people, and notify their next of kin.

The response brought together the Canadian Coast Guard, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue volunteers, air force aircraft and helicopters, BC Ferries, Hullo Ferries and other vessels nearby.

Brian Angus and Dorothy Stauffer, who were sailing aboard their yacht Malaika, rescued three people after spotting them in the water and issuing the mayday call that launched the wider rescue effort.

“They were floating on their backs to stay afloat, and none of them wearing lifejackets,” Stauffer tells the Vancouver Sun, adding that they then saw two more people, making a total of five in the water.

“I basically just commanded them to swim to the line that was coming to them, the dinghy line, and to hang on.”

The couple managed to bring three people aboard but lost sight of the other two before deciding they had to head for shore with those they had rescued.

“I deal with a lot of situations in the cabin, but this is something I’ll never forget,” said Stauffer.

Major Gregory Clarke of the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre said the couple’s quick actions helped save lives.

“Certainly, we’re very grateful to that couple,” Clarke said. “They did everything right.

“If it wasn’t for them, frankly I think this would have been more tragic. Having people in the water without life jackets is very alarming.”

Clarke said rescuers initially faced a language barrier with the survivors, made worse by hypothermia, but were eventually able to confirm that ten people had been aboard the boat.

He said the four survivors had already developed hypothermia despite being rescued less than an hour after the vessel went down.

“From our end of things, it’s a tragic event,” Clarke says. “We are confident that we covered the area very thoroughly. We had a great response from all of our assets, and just an unfortunate reminder that flotation devices can really make a difference.”

He said the decision to end the search had not been taken lightly.

“We don’t take it lightly, but basically, through all of the avenues, we exhausted all possibilities of finding anyone on the surface alive, and the reports of no flotation devices likely shortened survivability.”

Clarke said rescue crews had searched the area extensively from both the air and the water.

“We’re confident that had there been any survivors on the surface of the water, we would have located them with all the assets we had on scene from the air and the water,” Clarke adds.

He also said more people might have survived if they had been wearing life jackets.

“This incident, I think is going to resonate a bit bigger because of where it happened and the numbers involved,” he said. “We’re confident that had life jackets been worn by many of these people, we would have more survivors, just based on the temperature of the water in that area. It was warmer than it normally is.”

The search was suspended at 9.45pm on Sunday after rescue officials concluded there was no realistic prospect of finding anyone else alive.

The RCMP Underwater Recovery Team is expected to return to the site in the coming days to locate the vessel using sonar. Once it has been found, specialists will assess whether conditions allow a dive or whether a remotely operated underwater vehicle will be needed. Police believe the boat came to rest in very deep water.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada and Transport Canada have been notified and are co-ordinating with local agencies as the investigation continues. Authorities have not released the vessel’s name, and the cause of the sinking has not yet been determined.