Quebec tourist drowns off Cavendish

A 44-year-old tourist from Quebec drowned in the waters off Cavendish beachlate Wednesday afternoon.

RCMP said the man was vacationing with his wife and two teenage children. Witnesses say hewent into the water to help one of his children struggling in strong tidal currents. The teenager made it back safely, but the father did not survive.

Rescuers brought the man back to shore where they tried to revive him. Police, the North Rustico fire department and Island EMS were on the scene.

Rip current warning was in effect

Authorities with P.E.I. National Park issued a rip current warning Wednesday and encouraged people to swim in supervised areas only.

'People generally try to swim towards the shore exactly what you're not supposed to do.' Fire Chief Randy Sampson

North Rustico fire Chief Ken Sampson said it is not completely clear where the Quebec family was swimming.

"I understand they were swimming in the area between Cavendish Main and the Cavendish campground beach, so between the two supervised areas," said Sampson.

"They may have started in [a supervised] area, but the area where they came to shore was definitely between those areas."

Sampson said the victim wasn't breathing when firefighters arrived.

Rip currents, sometimes called rip tides,occur when water blown ashore rushes back out to sea in narrow channels, creating a current too strong for people to swim against. Sampson said he would like to see more done to educate people about what to do when caught in a rip current, rather than simply telling people to be careful.

"People generally try to swim towards the shore, because that's where they're going away from, and that's exactly what you're not supposed to do," he said.

Because rip currents are too strong to swim against, people should swim parallel to the shore and out of the current. Swimming against the current will exhaust the strongest swimmers, leading to a danger of drowning.

Police are withholding the victim's name until other family members are notified.