Coast Guard, RCAF rescue two Nunavut hunters

The Coast Guard ship Sir Wilfrid Laurier helped rescue two stranded hunters from an island near Gjoa Haven Sept. 22. (FILE PHOTO)

The Coast Guard ship Sir Wilfrid Laurier, with lots of help from the crew of a Royal Canadian Air Force Hercules aircraft, rescued two stranded hunters from an island near Gjoa Haven Sept. 22.

The hunters had departed Taloyoak Sept. 20 for Gjoa Haven.

But on Sept. 21, their boat ran out of fuel in rough waters and the boaters ended up stranded on Tutqaviq Island.

When they failed to arrive in Gjoa Haven at the expected time, the Government of Nunavut’s protection services unit contacted the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre at Trenton, Ont.

The JRCC sent a Hercules aircraft to the area, as well as the Sir Wilfrid Laurier.

About an hour after arriving in the area, the Hercules crew spotted the hunters and dropped a radio, food and fuel.

“They said that they were doing alright and could stay overnight to await extraction the following day, but they needed fuel for their portable stove and were out of food,” Master-Cpl. Eric Boivin, the search and rescue technician who spoke with the stranded boaters over the radio, said in a news release.

The Sir Wilfred Laurier arrived at around 4:00 p.m. Sept. 22, lifted the hunters off the island with the ship’s helicopter and flew them to Gjoa Haven.