Gardai and the Health and Safety Authority have launched separate investigations into the death of a 45-year-old fisherman who died after he fell into the sea while lobster fishing in Tralee Bay.
The man from Fenit was working with a skipper on his lobster boat when his foot became entangled in some ropes as lobster pots were being cast overboard five miles off Fenit at about 9.45am this morning.
It’s believed he lost his balance and was pulled overboard by the ropes and the pots as they were being shot and that he spent about three minutes in the water before his skipper managed to get him back on board and tried to rescuscitate him.
The Fenit lifeboat was launched and reached the boat within 15 minutes and put some crew aboard the fishing vessel where they also attempted to rescuscitate the man.
A post-mortem will be carried out on the man's remains tomorrow by assistant State pathologist, Dr Margaret Bolster and the north Kerry coroner will prepare a file for an inquest .
A spokesman for the Health and Safety Authority confirmed it had been notified of the fisherman's death and said its officers would be carrying out an investigation into the circumstances of the fatal accident.