Search for Cape Dorset hunter scaled back as chance of survival dwindles
After two and a half days of searching, a Cape Dorset, Nunavut, man who went missing on Sunday, is presumed dead.
Emergency Management Operations Nunavut became aware that a man was missing after his canoe and personal effects were found around 2:40 a.m. Monday.
In his canoe, which was on shore, the man's rifle, food and survival equipment was found, according to Maj. Mark Norris, the officer in charge of the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre (JRCC) in Halifax.
On Monday, Nunavut reached out to the JRCC for additional help in searching.
Norris said a Hercules aircraft and a Cormorant helicopter with two crews were sent to help, as well as the helicopter from a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker, which was a two-day sail away from Cape Dorset at the time.
JRCC is not releasing the man's name.
Search focused on sea ice
The local ground search worked its way along the shoreline with the help of the aircraft. The air support also looked on the ice, where ground search could not.
"We were really hoping that there was a good possibility of survival on the ice pans. Unfortunately we were not able to find him on the ice," Norris said.
The search effort also made use of the Canadian Meteorological Centre in Montreal, which helped determine the specific pans of ice that would have been near the man's boat.
The weather the last four days has not been good for searching, Norris said there's been a mix of rain, sleet and very high winds in Cape Dorset.
The search area was about three kilometres east of the community and relatively small.
'This was a tragedy'
"Because of the timeline and the survivability in the water, very late last night, the community, territorial officials and ourselves reduced the search and rescue effort," Norris said of the Cape Dorset man.
He said based on the science of survival, the man's family, community and the JRCC called off the search.
Local searchers will continue to try and recover the body.
"This was a tragedy and all of us in the search and rescue community, our thoughts are with the loved ones in this case," Norris said.
