Missing fisherman’s family want beacons mandatory
Posted August 10, 2010 7:08 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The sister of one of the fishermen still missing off the coast of Vancouver Island is weighing in, now that the search for them has ended. She’s demanding GPS beacons be made mandatory on all vessels.
Trisha Sturgess’s brother Kevin was the guide from Port Alberni who took two men from Washington State and one man from Oregon out on the Qualicum River Nine early last week.
She tells The Province newspaper, it wouldn’t have taken six days to find the boat had it been equipped with an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, a device that sends out GPS co-ordinates back to the coast via satellite.
It turns out most chartered fishing boats don’t have EPIRB’s because they’re not required to, something Sturgess thinks should be changed by the federal government.
