Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: missing

#Missing - The search resumed at first light this morning (Wednesday 24 August) for a swimmer reported missing off Bundoran in Co Donegal yesterday evening.

BreakingNews.ie reports that the man got into difficulty while swimming at Tullan Strand.

The alarm was raised by a beachgoer in the adjacent car park after a group of swimmers called for help, according to RTÉ News.

Bundoran RNLI and the Irish Coast Guard's Sligo-based helicopter Rescue 118 are involved in the search that was suspended overnight.

Published in News Update

#Missing - The search resumed off West Cork this morning (Tuesday 16 August) for a man in his 60s who failed to return to Schull from a solo fishing trip yesterday evening, as The Irish Times reports.

RNLI lifeboats from Baltimore were joined by local fishermen and the Irish Coast Guard's Shannon-based helicopter Rescue 115 to sweep the area where the man's punt was found in Long Island Bay around 8.30pm.

The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.

Published in News Update
Tagged under

#Missing - Galway Bay FM reports that a body was recovered from the water near Oughterard Pier in the search for a fisherman missing in Lough Corrib yesterday afternoon (Saturday 13 August).

As previously covered on Afloat.ie, the search began on Friday morning after a fishing boat belonging to a local man in his 50s was found unoccupied in the Co Galway lake.

Published in News Update
Tagged under

#Missing - The search resumed this morning for a fisherman missing in Lough Corrib near Oughterard in Co Galway.

As RTÉ News reports, emergency services were joined by local fisherman to begin the search after a fishing boat was found yesterday morning (Friday 12 August).

It's understood that the missing individual is a 50-year-old man from the locality, according to Independent.ie.

Published in News Update
Tagged under

#Missing - BBC News reports that the search has resumed for two teenagers missing in the Irish Sea off north-west Wales since yesterday afternoon (Sunday 7 August).

The two boys, ages 14 and 15, had got into difficulty while swimming at Barmouth Beach in Cardigan Bay and were separated from their group, comprising members of the Somali and Yemeni communities in Birmingham.

It's understood one member of the group attempted a rescue but was unsuccessful.

In a separate incident, HM Coastguard and RNLI lifeboats from Cardigan and New Quay launched to reports that a man had been swept off rocks at Mwnt on the southern side of Cardigan Bay.

It was reported that two men had been walking when they were cut off by the tide and one of them fell into the sea from rocks.

Published in News Update

#BlackLough - The body of a woman has been recovered from Dungannon's Black Lough in the search for a missing person, as the Belfast Telegraph reports.

Planned searches were ongoing in and around the Dungannon area in Co Tyrone yesterday morning (Tuesday 5 July) when the grim discovery was made around 10.30am.

The PSNI is investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of the woman, named locally as 68-year-old Hilda Kyle from Moygashel. The Belfast Telegraph has more HERE.

Published in News Update

#CliffsofMoher - Searches continued this week for a man thought to have fallen from the Cliffs of Moher at the weekend, according to the Irish Mirror.

Coastguard teams went into action last Friday (13 May) when staff at the area's visitor centre noticed a car parked overnight.

It's believed that the missing man is in his 60s, from Dublin and a regular pundit on TV and radio.

In other news, a man was hospitalised on Sunday (May 15) after attempting to swim to Dalkey Island.

As The Irish Times reports, the man in his 40s was recovered from Dalkey Sound by the Dublin Coast Guard and treated for mild hypothermia.

Published in News Update

#IrishSea - The inquest into the death of a Polish woman from Dublin whose body was recovered from the water off the Isle of Man last summer has recorded an open verdict, as BBC News reports.

Recording his findings at Douglas Courthouse earlier this month, coroner John Needham said 33-year-old company director Joanna Dabrowska had likely "spent a significant period" of "several weeks" in the Irish Sea before members of the public recovered her body in Douglas Bay on 5 July 2015.

Dabrowska has been renting a flat in Dublin on a career break after a stint in Germany when she was reported missing by her landlord in early June.

"Police enquiries have thrown no light on how, where and when Joanna's body entered the sea but there was no disease and no traumatic injuries to the skull," said Needham, adding that the date of her death would have been some time between 27 May and 25 June 2015.

BBC News has more on the story HERE.

Published in News Update

#Galway - BreakingNews.ie reports that post-mortems on two bodies recovered from Galway waters over the weekend are scheduled for today (Monday 18 April).

Gardaí have confirmed that the body of soldier Private Ben Garrett (21), who was missing since 31 March, was recovered from Galway Docks on Sunday morning (17 April).

Another body was found in Galway Bay on Saturday morning (16 April) in the search for Anthony Henehan, last seen entering the water at Wolfe Tone Bridge in Galway city on 10 March.

Published in News Update
Tagged under

#Diving - The UK Coastguard received a call just after 4.10pm yesterday afternoon (9 April) from a member of public reporting that a diver had not surfaced as expected in Strangford Lough near Ringhaddy, Co Down

Coastguard rescue teams from Portaferry and Bangor, the Portaferry RNLI lifeboat, the PSNI helicopter and the Irish Coast Guard's Rescue 116 helicopter based at Dublin were all sent to the area for the search.

Luckily the diver was found on the shore by local residents shortly after the coastguard were altered.

The Irish Coast Guard helicopter landed, with assistance from the UK Coastguard rescue teams. The diver was checked over by the on-board paramedic and after advice from a specialist doctor the diver was given the all-clear and allowed to make his own way home.

Graham Edgar, senior maritime operations officer with Belfast Coastguard, said: “This is a great outcome for all involved, the other diver’s in the group did exactly the right thing, they called us as soon as they realised he was missing.

"Fortunately the diver was found safe and well. We would urge all divers, as this diver did, to let someone know where they are planning to dive, when they are planning to come back and if possible dive within a group.

"Also keep a close eye on the weather and sea conditions and always dive within your limits."

Published in Diving
Page 5 of 13

Sharks in Irish waters

Irish waters are home to 71 species of shark, skates and rays, 58 of which have been studied in detail and listed on the Ireland Red List of Cartilaginous fish. Irish sharks range from small Sleeper sharks, Dogfish and Catsharks, to larger species like Frilled, Mackerel and Cow sharks, all the way to the second largest shark in the world, the Basking shark. 

Irish waters provide a refuge for an array of shark species. Tralee Bay, Co. Kerry provides a habitat for several rare and endangered sharks and their relatives, including the migratory tope shark, angel shark and undulate ray. This area is also the last European refuge for the extremely rare white skate. Through a European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) project, Marine Institute scientists have been working with fishermen to assess the distribution, diversity, and monthly relative abundance of skates and rays in Tralee, Brandon and Dingle Bays.

“These areas off the southwest coast of Ireland are important internationally as they hold some of the last remaining refuges for angel shark and white skate,” said Dr Maurice Clarke of the Marine Institute. “This EMFF project has provided data confirming the critically endangered status of some species and provides up-to-date information for the development of fishery measures to eliminate by-catch.” 

Irish waters are also home to the Black Mouthed Catshark, Galeus melastomus, one of Ireland’s smallest shark species which can be found in the deep sea along the continental shelf. In 2018, Irish scientists discovered a very rare shark-nursery 200 nautical miles off the west coast by the Marine Institute’s ROV Holland 1 on a shelf sloping to 750 metres deep. 

There are two ways that sharks are born, either as live young or from egg casings. In the ‘case’ of Black Mouthed Catsharks, the nursery discovered in 2018, was notable by the abundance of egg casings or ‘mermaid’s purses’. Many sharks, rays and skate lay eggs, the cases of which often wash ashore. If you find an egg casing along the seashore, take a photo for Purse Search Ireland, a citizen science project focusing on monitoring the shark, ray and skate species around Ireland.

Another species also found by Irish scientists using the ROV Holland 1 in 2018 was a very rare type of dogfish, the Sail Fin Rough Shark, Oxynotus paradoxus. These sharks are named after their long fins which resemble the trailing sails of a boat, and live in the deep sea in waters up to 750m deep. Like all sharks, skates and rays, they have no bones. Their skeleton is composed of cartilage, much like what our noses and ears are made from! This material is much more flexible and lighter than bone which is perfect for these animals living without the weight of gravity.

Throughout history sharks have been portrayed as the monsters of the sea, a concept that science is continuously debunking. Basking sharks were named in 1765 as Cetorhinus maximus, roughly translated to the ‘big-nosed sea monster’. Basking sharks are filter feeders, often swimming with their mouths agape, they filter plankton from the water.

They are very slow moving and like to bask in the sun in shallow water and are often seen in Irish waters around Spring and early Summer. To help understand the migration of these animals to be better able to understand and conserve these species, the Irish Basking Shark Group have tagged and mapped their travels.

Remarkably, many sharks like the Angel Shark, Squatina squatina have the ability to sense electricity. They do this via small pores in their skin called the ‘Ampullae of Lorenzini’ which are able to detect the tiny electrical impulses of a fish breathing, moving or even its heartbeat from distances of over a kilometre! Angel sharks, often referred to as Monkfish have a distinctively angelic shape, with flattened, large fins appearing like the wings of an angel. They live on the seafloor in the coastal waters of Ireland and much like a cat are nocturnal, primarily active at night.

The intricate complexity of shark adaptations is particularly noticeable in the texture of their skin. Composed of miniscule, perfectly shaped overlapping scales, the skin of shark provides them with protection. Often shark scales have been compared to teeth due to their hard enamel structure. They are strong, but also due to their intricate shape, these scales reduce drag and allow water to glide past them so that the shark can swim more effortlessly and silently. This natural flawless design has been used as inspiration for new neoprene fabric designs to help swimmers glide through the water. Although all sharks have this feature, the Leafscale Gulper Shark, Centrophorus squamosus, found in Ireland are specifically named due to the ornate leaf-shape of their scales.