PORT ANGELES — The 68-year-old Canadian tribal chief who perished in the Strait of Juan de Fuca on Wednesday drowned, according to a death certificate released Friday by the Clallam County prosecuting attorney.
Joseph Andrew “Jerry” Jack of Gold River, British Columbia, died when the Makah canoe in which he was paddling capsized, spilling him and five others into the 54-degree water west of the Dungeness Spit north of Sequim.
The canoe, named Hummingbird, was part of the 2006 Inter-Tribal Canoe Journey.
Jack was a hereditary chief of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht tribe in Gold River.
Three others were treated for hypothermia. None of those aboard Hummingbird were wearing life jackets, the Coast Guard reported.
Deborah Kelly, who is Clallam County’s prosecuting attorney and coroner, said Jack’s body has been released to his family.
Jack, a tugboat skipper who was born on Christmas day 1937 in Esperanza, British Columbia, officially died at 4 p.m. Wednesday of “saltwater drowning” within minutes of entering the water, wrote Dr. Daniel Selove of Everett, the pathologist who conducted the autopsy.
The Coast Guard and the Clallam County Sheriff’s Department are conducting an investigation into why the canoe overturned, although the Coast Guard has said that high winds and tall swells were to blame.
