Port Hardy, Vancouver Island, Feb 26 - An observer from the Canadian fisheries department was lifted to safety aboard a rescue helicopter after a trawler capsized, killing her three crewmembers.

According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the 24 metre Hope Bay foundered shortly after midnight about 90 km. north of Vancouver Island in Queen Charlotte Sound and her crew was forced to abandon ship.

Survivor Michael Slusar said Hope Bay rolled over onto the liferaft. Stuart Nelson of the Deep Sea Trawlers' Association said it was his understanding that three of the four on board had survival suits although it was not clear if they were used. All three bodies have been recovered.

He added that there were typically about 40 trawlers working the west coast from Vancouver Island and further north at this time of year. Hope Bay apparently rolled over in heavy seas as she headed south, possibly to a processing plant in Port Hardy, on northern Vancouver Island. Hope Bay was part of a series of four boats built in New Brunswick in the 1960s. After two of her sister-ships sank in the Gulf of Lawrence in 1971, a stability check was made on Hope Bay and some alterations were made in her fish holds. Alan Williams, owner of Hope Bay, says he is confident of the construction, seaworthiness and stability of his boat. "This is a boat the entire family has worked on for the last 22 years and as many as three sons have been fishing on that boat in the winter time, " he says. "If I had concerns I don't think I would have done that."

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HOPE BAY - CANADA