There’s a new development in the case of the fishing boat sinking in Richmond. Transport Canada has seized another ship belonging to the company involved, and the media has also revealed a detail that is difficult for the families to accept.<\/p>\n
On the very day the ship sank, the company was still showing off its catches on Xiaohongshu (a Chinese social media platform), with videos full of joyful scenes of anglers pulling in big fish. Two hours before the post was published, their fishing boat had already sunk to the bottom of the sea. Of the 10 people on board, only 3 survived.<\/p>\n
The vessel involved in the accident was a nine-meter-long boat named Top Ocean, which last sent a location signal at 10:35 a.m. that day. The company’s post was published at 12:24 PM. The post was later deleted, but English-language media outlets had taken screenshots and saved them . Ms. Lin, Ming Chen’s mother, said that the owner of the sea fishing company told her that the two boats would set sail one after the other, with an interval of “no more than five minutes”.<\/p>\n
The owner himself was on the second boat, with a boat full of guests. Ms. Lin said that she met the owner at the Steveston dock around 7 p.m. on the day of the incident. At that time, more than 8 hours had passed since the ship sank. Military planes, police and various search and rescue forces were already busy at sea, but the owner was letting passengers off the ship on another large ship. Ms. Lin said, “As a boat operator, if you can’t contact another boat, you should at least send the passengers back first and then go check on the other boat’s condition. That’s what you should do.” The shop owner told Ms. Lin that he immediately called the police as soon as he realized he couldn’t contact the other boat.<\/p>\n
However, the official records didn’t quite match. The first distress call reached the joint rescue coordination centre at 11:45 a.m. The call came from a man who happened to be sailing by. He and his wife found five people floating in the water, none of them wearing life jackets. Police estimated that the people had been in the water for about an hour by then. BC Emergency Services received the call at 12:16 p.m. Transport Canada has already ordered the impounding of the fishing company’s other 11-meter vessel on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The seizure order was affixed directly to the boat’s window, stating that the boat, intended for recreational use, was being operated as a commercial passenger vessel without proper registration and markings. The large ship was an Axopar vessel, and it had been docked at Steveston Pier since the incident. The berth it was in was originally reserved for the already sunk Top Ocean.<\/p>\n
The sunken Top Ocean was registered to Yin and Song, who both registered the same address: a 930-square-meter mansion in Richmond. The Ministry of Transport determined that the owner of the detained large ship was also Mr. Yin. As early as last week, Ms. Lin and Chen Ming’s girlfriend mentioned that Chen Ming had complained many times before his death that there was something wrong with the boat, and that one of the side doors was broken.<\/p>\n
Hailey Lee, the girlfriend, said that she was on the boat two days before the accident when the door suddenly popped open and seawater rushed in. Chen Ming is only 22 years old this year. His mother said he is a “sensible child” who especially loves fishing. At first, he just went out to sea a few times as a customer, but later the company told him that he could come and fish without spending any money, and he could just lend a hand. And so, he gradually began doing various jobs on the ship.<\/p>\n
As for whether her son was properly licensed to be the captain of this chartered boat, Ms. Lin said she didn’t know. Police are still investigating whether the tragedy was caused by a problem with the vessel’s operation . The shipwreck now lies 153 meters below the surface near Roberts Bank. It was located by an underwater robot on July 6, but no trace of the six missing persons was found inside or outside the ship. The company’s website had already closed its reservations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"