Search to resume today for missing fisherman

Searches are due to resume today for a man whose small fishing boat was found drifting off the Cork coast last night.

The alarm was raised around 7.30pm when concerns mounted in the coastal village of Schull about an “overdue vessel”.

An elderly fisherman, who is believed to be from the Schull area and who it is understood had set out from Schull alone in a small punt around 2pm, had failed to return.

The Irish Coast Guard launched a major sea, air and coastal search operation and tasked the Baltimore inshore lifeboat, which launched at 7.45pm, Schull inshore lifeboat, as well as local coast guard ground units.

They were backed by a coast guard helicopter which used heat seeking equipment as darkness began to fall.

Then at around 8.15pm, members of the Baltimore inshore lifeboat discovered an unoccupied punt drifting just south of Goat Island, which is close to Long Island between Crookhaven and Schull, and concerns for the fisherman escalated.

Tragically, it is believed the missing man has close family connections to a person in one of the agencies who was involved in last night’s search operation.

The Irish naval vessel, the LÉ Orla, was also tasked to the area last night and deployed two landing craft to help in the search, which continued for about another hour until darkness fell and the search operation was stood down for the night.

The LÉ Orla remained at anchor in the area overnight, and is due to co-ordinate today’s search operations, which were due to resume at first light.