A large-scale search operation is underway for three missing men in Tofino after a small boat with five people on board went down early Friday morning.

The Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria said it received multiple calls after people in the Duffin Cove area of Tofino heard cries for help at around 2 a.m.

The roughly 20-foot-long boat was carrying five people and did not send out a mayday call as it went down, the JRCC said.

Search efforts were launched and around 3:30 a.m, a Canadian Coast Guard fast response boat found and recovered one person from the water who wasn't wearing a lifejacket. He was taken to hospital for treatment.

A second man on the boat was able to swim to shore at Duffin Cove around 4:20 a.m. and was treated by paramedics at the scene.

His cries for help were heard by the owner of nearby Cable Cove Inn, Jae Valentine, early Friday morning.

"I heard some wolves howling, and then I could hear some voices, and the voices got louder and I heard someone yelling 'Help, help, help,'" she told CTV News. "Didn't know where it was coming from, so I got dressed, went to my front parking lot, went down into my cove to determine where the voices were coming from."

A neighbour said someone was in distress, prompting Valentine to call 911.

Searchers including RCMP, Coast Guard, First Nations groups, 442 squadron and local volunteers spent the rest of the day Friday scouring a roughly 41-square-kilometre search area for any sign of the three men.

The three missing men remained unaccounted for as of 5 p.m. Friday, but searchers are refusing to give up hope.

"It's always hopeful, it's always a search," said Garth Cameron, Search Manager for West Coast Search and Rescue. "The chances of survival, it's a beautiful day, it's warm outside, so you never lose hope, you never give up, and you give 110 per cent of your effort all the time."

Among the professional and volunteer searchers are members of the local Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, where the missing men are believed to be from. It's unclear what the group was doing out on the water when the boat overturned.

"We don't have any official statement on what they were out there doing, we just know that in the early hours of the morning that a boat potentially capsized and a few people were recovered in the water," said Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation spokesman Connor Paone. "The community really rallies in moments like this to help support each other as families and friends and community members, and we also have a lot of our members you don't see here who are actually out on the water performing a search."

For the people of Tofino, who have grappled with tragedies on the ocean like a fatal 2015 capsizing that killed six people, it's another test of their strength.

"These are really hard times, and this community, our communities here, we have such a strong connection to the ocean," said Tofino Mayor Josie Osborne. "When things like this happen, it's just awful, it's terrible, but it does pull the communities together and as always, I am just so impressed with the way everybody comes together to support each other, to get out and search."

Families and friends of the missing men had gathered on the First Street Dock in downtown Tofino to await any word on the fate of their loved ones. 

With files from The Canadian Press.