Sea search recovers man's body

The body of a fisherman lost on Thursday night when his boat hit rocks on the Co Down coast has been recovered.

The body of a fisherman lost on Thursday night when his boat hit rocks on the Co Down coast has been recovered.

Donal Gibson (22) of Ardfern Park, Downpatrick, was found by civilian searchers near the fishing village of Ardglass. The search for his colleague, Conor Bogues (26) from Ballynahinch, continued till nightfall yesterday.

The Greenhill was lost after it driven onto rocks by strong winds and heavy seas near Ardglass and broke up. Neither of the missing men was wearing a lifejacket.

The skipper of the Greenhill was picked up by the crew of Portaferry lifeboat after it was alerted while on an exercise.

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A full-scale rescue was launched once the lifeboat crew were told that the two others were missing and had failed to make it to the life raft in time.

Some wreckage was quickly found, including the sunken vessel's nameplate, along a rocky stretch of coastline about a mile north of Ardglass.

The wreckage of the hull was found a short time later on Friday when the strong winds abated, allowing divers to join the operation.

Some 700 people joined the search. They included local people, the Coastguard, the lifeboat crews from Portaferry and Newcastle, PSNI officers and the service's helicopter, a special search vessel equipped with sonar equipment and an air-sea rescue helicopter from Dublin.

However, late on Friday Alan Pritchard from the Coastguard said the process had moved from a search and rescue to an operation to recover the bodies.

"With the passage of time and with sea temperatures around eight or nine degrees centigrade the survivability in those conditions is limited," he said.

"I think we have exhausted all our avenues of investigation to try and locate the two crewmen safe and well."

A police diving team visited the wreck of the vessel yesterday.

The families of the missing men released statements over the weekend thanking all those who helped.

Mr Gibson's family said: "Donal's family wish to express their eternal thankfulness to all of those, both professional and volunteers, who have given their all to the effort to find Donal and Conor over the last few days."