Nunavut searchers rescue two groups along Baffin shorelines

Search and rescue teams had a busy but successful Canada Day weekend in the Baffin region, where two groups were recovered from shifting ice floating on waters near the shoreline.

On June 30, a team of 24 hunters at the edge of an ice floe became stranded when the floe edge broke off, leaving them trapped on a drifting ice pan near Pond Inlet.

The Pond Inlet search and rescue organization notified the community’s RCMP detachment at 11:30 a.m.

The team rescued all 24 people by 9:30 p.m., with help from the Nunavut Emergency Measures Organization.

None were reported injured, the RCMP said in a news release July 2.

The day before that, on June 29 in south Baffin, Cape Dorset RCMP received a call at 1:00 a.m. about three boaters who had gone missing about 50 kilometres east of the community.

Cape Dorset search and rescue, with the help of the Nunavut Emergency Measures Organization, recovered the group that evening.

The two incidents followed a large-scale shoreline rescue in the region just days before, on June 24 and June 25, when a group 20 tourists and a separate group of 11 hunters were stranded on drifting ice pans that had broken off the floe edge near Arctic Bay.

Canadian Armed Forces were called to rescue the tourists by helicopter. The hunters found their way back to shore when their section of ice drifted back.