Missing fisherman is feared drowned

A fisherman missing for two days off the Kerry coast may have fallen overboard and drowned as he was not wearing a lifejacket, rescuers said today.

The man in his 50s, who has not been named, set sail on Wednesday evening but his 20ft pleasure cruiser was later seen drifting unmanned in Kenmare Bay, County Kerry.

A search was resumed today by Coastguard teams and a lifeboat, while inshore rescue units and dozens of local boat owners scoured a search site between Dinish island and Templenoe Point.

Divers from the Irish Navy ship Le Ciara were also on standby.

A Navy spokesman said: “The man was in the pleasure craft alone although he was a very experienced fisherman from the locality and he restricts his work to a very short distance from the shore.

“Remarkably the boat was seen drifting later that evening without anybody on board and it is suspected that he just had a mishap and simply fell overboard.

“We do not suspect that he was wearing a lifejacket at the time which obviously poses a danger to himself,” he added.

The search operation was being led by a lifeboat from Castletownbere and weather conditions were said to be good.

The fisherman went missing just days after five people, including three generations of one family, drowned after their boat sank off Fethard-on-Sea, County Wexford.

The last of the dead, including 14-year-old Mark Doyle, was buried in the county yesterday. None of the victims in that tragedy was wearing a lifejacket.

The Navy spokesman went on: “Unlike the recent tragedy in Fethard-on-Sea we do not know the exact location where the person was lost overboard.

“But we are hopeful that with the large number of volunteers we can find something today.”