A whale-watching boat carrying 27 people sank off the coast of Canada’s Vancouver Island on Sunday afternoon, killing at least five people. The tourist boat, the Leviathan II, went down around 5 p.m about eight miles off the coast of Tofino, British Columbia. On Sunday night private ships joined the Royal Canadian Navy in the search for survivors. A spokesperson for Canada’s Joint Rescue Coordination Center said 21 people were recovered from the water, and one is unaccounted for. Many of the survivors had signs of hypothermia, and 18 were hospitalized. The weather conditions were moderate, and the cause of the crash has yet to be determined. “The waters weren’t choppy so I don’t see what could have caused the boat to sink,” said Rami Touffaha, a local tour boat operator. “But you never know in these waters unfortunately.”
