#Missing - BBC News reports that two bodies have been recovered from the sea in the search for four fishermen whose trawler went missing in the English channel this week.

Lifeboat crews from Dungeness, Dover and Hastings RNLI stations yesterday (29 January) resumed their part in a major search for the Belgian fishing boat, which vanished from radio contact on Wednesday (28 January) some 10 miles south of Dungeness.

They joined search and rescue helicopters, vessels from the French authorities, a Trinity House boat and several other fishing trawlers in what was expected to be "a long, protracted search of the channel", according to RNLI divisional operations manager Allen Head.

At 3pm yesterday debris was identified 20 miles southeast of Dungeness, in French territorial waters, and the lifeboats continued to search the area until they were recalled by the coastguard.

However later in the evening two bodies were discovered in the sea off Boulogne in northern France, some 30 miles across the channel from Dungeness. BBC News has more on the story HERE.

#Missing - On New Year's Day emergency teams entered the third day of a search and rescue operation on the north Down coast for a woman missing from her Bangor home since Monday 29 December.

According to the Belfast Telegraph, a member of the public reported that the woman – in her early 30s, and believed to have experienced a recent bereavement – had swum out into open water, leaving a bag of clothes at a pier in the town on the southern shore of Belfast Lough.

A major search operation was launched with the coastguard and RNLI lifeboats joined by Lagan Search and Rescue, a fishery patrol and a PSNI helicopter, but this was scaled back on Wednesday to two search boats and a team of coastguard volunteers searching on land.

Elsewhere in Northern Ireland, the search for a missing Monaghan man in Enniskillen entered its 17th day yesterday (2 January), with the Belfast Telegraph highlighting the "extraordinary" level of community support behind the volunteer effort.

Kieran McAree is thought to have entered Lough Erne after abandoning his car in the Fermanagh town in the early hours of 17 December, and now the search is focused on recovering his body.

But even as recently as last weekend more than 300 people joined in the search in their own boats and kayaks to cover a wide area of the lough, with PSNI Constable Gavin Huey telling the Impartial Reporter: "This is the biggest search I have ever witnessed on Lough Erne."

#Howth - BreakingNews.ie reports that a body has been found near Howth Pier earlier today (Tuesday 11 November).

Though the identity has not yet been confirmed, gardaí said they have since stood down their search in tandem with Howth Coast Guard for missing 38-year-old Catherine O'Reilly.

The Clontarf woman was last seen on Thursday (6 November), and her car was found at the pier yesterday afternoon.

#Missing - Search and rescue teams have been combing the coastline around Brighton for a missing yachtsman after his yacht was found drifting in the southern English town's marina late last night.

According to Yachting & Boating World, fears for the missing man's safety grew after an RNLI crew member who boarded the 70ft Sunseeker found no sign of life, despite the instruments being on and the engine still being warm.

The search has spread out from Brighton Marina and environs to some miles offshore into the English Channel in what were described as "challenging conditions" overnight for lifeboat volunteers, with the search suspended before lunchtime today.

As the Eastbourne Herald reports, the missing yachtsman is believed to be Leonard George King from Alfriston in East Sussex, who failed to return home from a planned trip yesterday.

#Missing - Gardaí have said they are satisfied that a body recovered from the River Boyne yesterday afternoon (Saturday 23 August) is that of missing Meath man John Ryan, as The Irish Times reports.

The remains of the 20-year-old – who had been missing from Mornington in Co Meath since last Tuesday – were removed from the Boyne by Drogheda River Rescue during a search, and are expected to be positively identified today.

#Surfing - The family of an Irish surfer in Australia who went missing after he and two friends were pulled out to sea by a rip current have expressed their hope that he will be returned to them.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the incident prompted a major search and rescue effort in treacherous conditions off Tallow Beach on Byron Bay, south of the Gold Coast in New South Wales last Saturday morning (19 July).

The missing man has since been named by Independent.ie as 20-year-old Stuart Butler from Santry, who had joined two friends, Levi Fahrenholtz (25) from the US and Mike Fuller (19) from England to go boarding at the popular surfing spot.

Fuller managed to reach nearby rocks when the rip current pulled them away from the beach, and Fahrenholz was later rescued after he was swept around Cape Byron, but all trace of Butler's whereabouts was lost.

The North Dubliner is officially listed as a missing person, though it's been confirmed that the search effort is "now a body recovery operation".

Independent.ie has more on the story HERE.

#Surfing - The Irish Times reports that the search for an Irish surfer missing since Saturday morning (19 July) off Cape Byron in Australia was suspended earlier today in fading light and treacherous conditions.

The 19-year-old was surfing with two friends when they got caught in a rip current near Tallow Beach, south of the Gold Coast in New South Wales.

One of the two rescued, aged 26, was helped from the water unharmed, while the other, aged 20, was found on nearby rocks with minor injuries.

Local surf clubs have joined in the search and rescue operation attended by helicopters and jet ski crews. The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.

#Diving - Search teams have found the body of a diver who went missing off West Cork early yesterday (2 July) after an incident that lead to the death of another diver.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, a major search and rescue operation was launched after the accident at a wreck site off the Baltimore area.

According to Independent.ie, the two deceased men were in their 60s and understood to be experienced diving enthusiasts, who had been exploring the wreck of a German U-Boat that sank off Castlehaven in 1945.

Both men, from England, were described as regular visitors to the Baltimore area since the late 1970s.

Independent.ie has more on the story HERE.

#CheekiRafiki - US Coast Guard officials say they have identified the upturned hull of the Cheeki Rafiki, whose crew have been missing for more than a week.

But according to BBC News, they also confirmed that the vessel's liferaft was still on board - dashing any hopes that its crew of four British sailors may still be alive.

Contact with the 40ft yacht was lost last Friday 16 May after it reported taking on water and altered its transatlantic course while returning to Britain from a regatta in Antigua.

US and Canadian search teams covered a 4,000 square mile section of the mid Atlantic but halted their initial search after two days with no signs of its four-man crew - James Male, Andrew Bridge, Steve Warren and Paul Goslin - who are all experienced offshore sailors.

However, earlier this week the search resumed after a request from the British government amid pressure from the families of the missing yachtsmen and their supporters, who collected hundreds of thousands of signatures in an online petition.

The capsized yacht was found yesterday (Friday 23 May) by the US Navy in the same area where the crew had originally reported difficulties. Search operations have now ended.

BBC News has more on the story HERE.

#Offshore - The US Coast Guard has resumed the search for four British yachtsmen missing in the mid Atlantic after a request from Westminster, BBC News reports.

Contact was lost last Friday 16 May with Paul Goslin, Steve Warren, James Male and skipper Andrew Bridge of the Cheeky Rafiki a day after the 40ft yacht got into difficulties when returning to the UK from a regatta in Antigua.

Two days later, a major search operation covering 4,000 square miles of the Atlantic was suspended with no sign of the yacht's crew.

It's not been confirmed what specifically prompted the search for the four men to resume - but the move comes a day after an online petition calling on US authorities to restart the search collected more than 200,000 signatures.

The families of the missing sailors maintain their insistence that the men may well have survived the rough ocean conditions in their liferaft, despite the US Coast Guard estimating a survival time of just 20 hours.

Veteran ocean-crossers Sir Richard Branson and Tony Bullimore have also backed the families' belief that the conditions were potentially survivable.

However, experts suggest it "highly unlikely" that rescue teams missed sighting any liferaft during last weekend's search.

A sighting of what's thought to be the upturned hill of the Cheeky Rafiki by the cargo ship Maersk Kure midway between Cape Cod and the Azores has yet to be confirmed.

BBC News has more on the story HERE.