Lifeboats and trawlers look for missing man

The search for a 62-year-old fisherman missing off the Co Waterford coast was continuing last night.

A mayday signal from the Boyne Harvester fishing vessel was received on Wednesday at 11.48pm after it emerged that the man was lost overboard.

The Boyne Harvester, from Drogheda, Co Louth, with three crew on board, had been dredging the sea-bed around Waterford Harbour and Creadan Head for cockles and mussels since July.

Paddy McCabe, a father of four from Dundalk, Co Louth, fell into the sea some 3km from Dunmore East and about 500 metres from the shore at Fournaught Strand.

Conditions were good at the time and the circumstances of the accident are not known. The vessel had been going out to sea and was in about 2½ metres of water when Mr McCabe went overboard.

His family travelled from Dundalk to Dunmore East yesterday afternoon and helped the Coast Guard with the search last night.

An RNLI lifeboat from Dunmore East arrived at 12.05am yesterday and was joined by the lifeboat from Fethard-on-Sea.

The Coast Guard Sikorsky helicopter from Waterford Regional Airport carried out a search overnight.

A shoreline and surface search was also conducted from Dunmore East to Passage East.

Up to 12 trawlers joined in the search for the missing man yesterday morning.

The Coast Guard said yesterday that conditions on Wednesday night were very good with light winds and good visibility in Dunmore East.

Local area officer with the Coast Guard, Jim Griffin, yesterday said: "At this stage, we are carrying out low and high water searches upstream and downstream and the search has been extended into the Waterford Estuary."

Good light yesterday morning enabled an "extensive shoreline search", which started at first light, to be carried out.

A low tide in darkness last night meant that a "swift search" would be carried out for the man, who was wearing blue jeans and a yellow high-visibility jacket when he went missing from the vessel, it emerged.

"We will have low tide at half-past-nine in the morning, so we can be on-scene at seven o'clock," he added.

The Dunmore East lifeboat, with six crewmen on board, combed the waters around Creadan Head in around one to two metres of water.

An RNLI crew from Fethard- on-Sea dragged a grappling hook along Fournaught Strand, a secluded bay area between the wooded Knockaveelish and Creadan Head, in calm and sunny conditions yesterday afternoon.