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Displaying items by tag: Leviathan II

#WhaleBoat - A nurse from Northern Ireland was among those who assisted survivors of the tragic whale boat capsize in Canada at the weekend, as BBC News reports.

Five people – all British – died and a sixth, an Australian national, is still missing after the whale-watching boat Leviathan II sank off Vancouver Island on Sunday.

Twenty-one others on the boat were rescued from the water thanks to the quick action of the local Ahousaht First Nation community, who were first to respond, along with fishing boats and other vessels in the area.

Also at a nearby dock to give comfort to the survivors as they came ashore was Sheila Simpson, originally from Strabane, Co Tyrone, who told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster: "I looked them in the eye and I put my hand to their back and I said 'you are alive, you have survived'."

The stability of the Leviathan II at the time of the incident in question as it's believed the passengers – none of whom were wearing lifejackets – were standing on the vessel's port side when an unexpected wave hit from starboard in what were reportedly calm conditions.

BBC News has more on the story HERE.

Published in News Update

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.