On January the 6th, 2008,
we were going out on the Westisle to do a food herring for the Canadian Fishing Company.
The weather was not too bad when we made the set in Pylades Channel,
but by the time we were working on it more and more,
the wind was coming up more and more and more.
It was blowing about 35 southeast, and it was snowing, and it was cold.
It was just getting dark at the time, so this is when all the herring started to come up,
and fish started getting heavy, right, and the boat started listing over.
All of a sudden, bang! The vanging winch, it snapped. The boom went right over
and I told Dennis let down--let the single go.
When I went to let down on the single, it just came down really, really, really slow.
The net's getting further away from us because the wind's blowing us away from the net.
Then we started to list more and more,
and we were talking back and forth-- maybe we should let this set go.
In the meantime the boat's going over, over...
When it started going over the bulwarks, I knew we were going to roll right over.
The water was starting to come over the rail and I just started walking up around the side of the cabin,
and the boat just laid over on her side like that,
and that meant all the fish started pouring out of the tanks.
That's when I knew we were in trouble.
I grew up on a float house on the water all my life.
As you grew up and you got to be a strong enough swimmer
that you could swim across the little bay that we lived in,
which was a couple of hundred yards across and back,
you graduated and you didn't have to wear your life jacket.
September 2nd, 2011.
It was late in the season, I took the group of guests out, it was eight of us on board.
We were fishing seven miles offshore.
Wind was blowing southeast. Seas are rough.
I had my size 11 steel toed gum boots on,
long johns, jeans, rain gear, a big wool sweater, my rain jacket,
no life jacket on.
None of us on board--the life jackets were on the boat.
I was on the back deck running the fishing rods.
I was leaning against a small safety strap, reaching out to gaff a halibut.
And at that time the safety strap broke,
and I went face-first into the water.
Ben was athletic and artistic, musical.
He just had one of those winning personalities where he could make you laugh,
he could change your mind, he could pull you out of a slump.
He was just amazing that way.
June 6th, 2014 was a Friday. At about 1:20, thereabouts,
I got a really panicked phone call from my daughter
saying, "Mom, Ben's skipper just got a hold of me. Something's wrong, call him now."
Then I called them and they told me that Ben had fallen overboard
and that he was being evacuated and they didn't know any more.
Ben was at the back of the boat, setting the line.
Nobody saw the accident happen and we don't really know what happened.
But it appears as though he was caught in the rope that was the line for the traps,
and pulled overboard.
When I was on the side of the boat with Pat and Art,
and I'm looking at them and they're looking at me,
and I remember thinking to myself, God I hope I don't look as scared as they do,
because they just had this look of fear on their face.
I'll never forget that as long as I live.
When the boat rolled over, I was holding onto the side of the boat,
and when I was going down, I took that deep breath,
and when I came up, I was okay.
Like I took the deep breath, eh, and I went in, and splashed down,
and as I came out of the water I took a breath of air,
a wave came, went right at my mouth and it was full of diesel,
and that's where I panicked -- I literally panicked, right?
Because now all of a sudden I felt like I was drowning.
And I'm just thinking to myself, I gotta calm down, and I thought to myself
this is not where Mrs. Woloshuk's little boy is gonna die...right?
He stayed afloat long enough to yell and the crew heard.
So they turned the boat around and they went to go get him.
But by the time they picked him up and out of the water,
he was probably already gone.
But they kept trying, and so they tried to do CPR, they maydayed out.
Everybody tried so hard, I mean he was 25 years old. They tried...really hard...to bring him back.
But he didn't make it.
We could see lights for awhile, engine was going and everything,
then when the boat went down it was all dark.
And we were holding on, and that's when I thought, I don't know where everybody was.
I guess what was going on in my mind -- I think we're finished, eh?
No PFD, no nothing. I got all my clothes, all my gear on.
And when I went in the water, I thought, holy smokes.
All I had left was prayer.
"Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil."
And all of a sudden, with just a beautiful, beautiful feeling,
I was like -- it didn't matter if I was going to die.
I had accepted death.
Just then Dempsey came around on the power skiff,
and I said to Dempsey, "Come grab me and I'll help you look for your dad."
That's when I realized how cold I was. Couldn't feel my legs, I couldn't feel my hands.
I could barely feel my own face, right, sort of thing.
And I could hear this "Dad! Dad!"
They came closer, and they came closer, and then they got there alongside of us,
and then the four of them pulled me in, and there was that much water in the bottom of the skiff.
But I don't know what happened to Pat on the other end.
I went down, down, down, and I was struggling to swim in panic mode.
With no air in your lungs, with all that gear on, I was losing ground, I was still sinking down.
At that point I think that I was probably 30-35 feet below the surface.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the yellow line from one of the fishing rods
going past me, and I took a random swipe at it,
and when I did, I got two wraps of the line around my right arm.
And when that happened the rod on the back deck of the boat actually flipped up
like it was going to jump overboard,
and one of the clients on board grabbed the rod and reeled me up to the surface.
The wind was blowing -- by this time it was blowing probably 40 anyways --
it was blowing pretty good, the snow was going sideways, it was just, it was cold, it was miserable.
And we started heading back towards where I thought the boat was.
We're looking for Pat, right? And I'm hollering, "Where are you? Where are you?"
And we just kept looking around, looking around, and we just kept hollering, "Where are you? Where are you?"
And it was like, no answer.
And I said to Chris, I says, "What do you want to do?" I says, "I can't find him."
And he says, "Well we have to go."
I said, you know, we can't find Pat.
So I was the one that said, okay, better head for the dock -- we'll try and save us.
The loss of Pat didn't only hit me, but it hit this whole community.
He was not only a cousin, he was my brother, eh? We were blood.
It was heartbreaking -- devastating, really -- to his immediate family,
and everything just kind of stopped...dead.
We kind of stopped dead when he died. And life is different without him --
very, very, very different without him.
I tell that story to my customers twice a week,
on the importance of wearing your life jacket or your PFD when you're on the water.
You know, you can be the best swimmer out there, you can be growing up on the water all your life,
and it takes a millisecond for an accident like that to happen.
2008, January the 6th, when we left for the fishing grounds,
there was no thought of me or any one of my crew dying.
No thought at all.
And when coming back, and Pat didn't come with me...
that really hurt, and it hurts today.
I mean if we all had PFDs on, you know, like, we more than likely would have found Pat right then and there.
I think if Ben had worn a PFD, he would have had a couple more minutes of above-water time.
He just needed a few more minutes that he didn't get.
You know this is real. When you get on that boat, you have a chance of rolling over.
But if you get on that boat and you have a PFD on, you have a big chance of surviving,
and that's what I see.
If you're in the water and, you know, you can't swim, or, you know, your boots pull you under, or whatever,
I mean you just don't have a chance. This way here at least you have a chance.
If I had been wearing a PFD that day, I would've hit the water and I would've floated to the surface instantly.
It doesn't seem complicated.
It's the most basic of safety items on a boat.
It's amazing how many people take it for granted and not wear a life jacket.
If I could save another person from drowning by wearing a PFD,
by just doing this video, I'll be so happy.
There were 26 work-related deaths in the commercial fishing industry between 2007 and 2017.
Of those, 16 were drowning related.
PFDs save lives.