Police say the search for a missing 35-year-old man has been suspended after he disappeared while fishing from a canoe off northern Vancouver Island. Dakota Smith was last seen around noon on Nov. 6, when he set off into the waters of the Johnstone Strait north of Sayward, B.C. The Joint Resue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria contacted the Sayward RCMP shortly before 4:30 p.m. that day and mounted a search effort that would include watercraft and helicopters. Smith’s capsized canoe and a paddle were later found but searchers have been unable to locate the missing man as a series of storms deluged coastal B.C. with high winds and hammering rain. “Despite the intensive search through inclement weather consisting of high unpredictable winds, heavy rainfalls and the frigid water temperature, the chances of survivability have drastically been reduced,” the Sayward RCMP said in a statement Tuesday. “Additionally, the challenging ongoing weather conditions are making it unsafe for water and shoreline searches.” While the RCMP and the Campbell River Volunteer Search and Rescue Society have suspended their search efforts, a volunteer group from the Ma’a̱mtagila Nation has vowed to continue. “We are mobilizing our water searchers tomorrow morning, as today is too heavy a storm day to get our boats out safely,” said search co-ordinator Jen Ambers in an email Tuesday, adding land searches around the area are ongoing.
