THE SEARCH for two missing fishermen will continue in west Cork today with an additional focus on surface water searches in the belief that the bodies of the men may surface today or tomorrow.
The search for missing skipper Michael Hayes (52) and crewman Said Mohammed (23) will today enter its 10th day, with a particular emphasis being placed on examination of the shoreline around Glandore Bay in west Cork.
The two fishermen remain missing since Mr Hayes’s trawler, the Tit Bonhomme, sank when it hit Adam Island at the mouth of Glandore Bay early on January 15th as it returned from a prawn fishing trip to his home port of Union Hall.
Divers from the Naval Service and the Garda water unit were joined yesterday by civilian dive teams drawn from Union Hall and Baltimore as well as from Mallow Search and Rescue and Killarney Water Rescue.
Divers searched in the vicinity of the wreck of the Tit Bonhomme near where they recovered the bodies of fellow crew members, Attea Shaban (26) and Kevin Kershaw (21), on Thursday and Wael Mohammed (35) on Sunday morning.
While divers will continue searching the seabed around Adam Island, a particular emphasis will be placed today on sweeps of the sea surface and shoreline as bodies are known to surface after nine days due to a build up of various gases.
Gerard O’Flynn of the Irish Coast Guard, which is co-ordinating the searches along with the Naval Service, said: “We have had a lot of offers from people with small craft and we’re going to utilise those tomorrow as the weather conditions are very favourable and we’re hoping that a sweep of the bay including searching many of the inlets may yield positive results.”
Union Hall native Fr Pierse Cormac, who has been supporting the families of the missing men, said the past few days had been difficult for them as they had seen their hopes rise and fall.
“The families are becoming resigned to the fact that they have to take things day by day, hour by hour – there’s a realism among them that this is going to be a very difficult process for everyone, with nothing guaranteed in terms of the outcome.”
The bodies of Mr Shaban and Mr Mohammed are being returned to Egypt later this week.
Mr Kershaw’s removal will take place today from O’Sullivan’s funeral home in Clonakilty to Clonakilty parish church.
Requiem Mass will take place at noon tomorrow before Mr Kershaw’s body is brought to the Church of the Priory in Tallaght, Dublin. The funeral Mass will take place on Thursday followed by burial at Bohernabreena Cemetery.