VICTORIA—Two people are dead and three others are in stable condition after a fishing boat went down off the west coast of Vancouver Island.

All five of the passengers were taken to shore Sunday afternoon, but health officials later confirmed that two of them had died, Coast Guard spokesman Dan Bate said in a statement.

The 8.5-metre-long catamaran was fishing for halibut near Bartlett Island, north of Tofino, B.C., on Sunday afternoon, he said.

Someone on the boat made a distress call around 1:20 p.m., said Sub-Lt. Melissa Kia with the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria.

"We were able to talk with the vessel, live, to confirm that the five passengers were abandoning into the water. While the boat was attempting to get in a better position to speak with us via cellphone, it lost communications with the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre," she said.

Coast guard rescue boats, a Royal Canadian Air Forces helicopter and a plane from CFB Comox were all dispatched to help find the passengers, and a broadcast was put out asking marine vessels in the area to search the area.

Two commercial float planes also responded to the call for help, Kia said, and one of them spotted the people in the water and directed rescuers to the location.

"All five people were recovered from the water by two vessels of opportunity (non-coast guard boats) that were very close to the position," Kia said.

The boats linked up with the coast guard and an off-duty paramedic provided CPR to one passenger while a Coast Guard Rescue Specialist tried to resuscitate another, said Bate.

All five people were taken to emergency health services in Tofino, and Bate said Sunday evening that the three surviving passengers were cold but in stable condition.

What caused the vessel to take on water remains unclear.

Kia said the sea was about two to three metres high Sunday afternoon and lighting conditions in the area were good. She said the water temperature off the west coast of Vancouver Island is between about eight and 10 degrees at this time of year.