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Displaying items by tag: missing

#Missing - RTÉ News reports that a search and rescue effort resumes this morning for a fisherman missing off Co Clare after he was washed into the sea yesterday evening (6 October).

The Latvian national was angling with friends off rocks near Fanore when he was knocked off balance by an unexpected wave. One friend jumped into the sea to attempt rescue but was unsuccessful, and was himself later treated for hypothermia.

A search of the shoreline was set to resume this morning as weather and sea conditions remain difficult, with a small craft warning in effect around the coast as winds are expected to reach Force 6 or higher.

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#Missing - The search continues on the North Antrim coast for a missing man thought to have been swept out to sea while angling at the weekend.

The man has been named as 38-year-old Polish national Jaroslaw Andrykiewicz, who had been living in Northern Ireland for six years and worked at a vegetable produce firm in Co Armagh.

BBC News reports that the family of the missing man have arrived in Northern Ireland as search and rescue services continue to comb the coast around Ramore Head in Portrush, where he was last seen.

The search for Andrykiewicz had been slowed earlier this week by the stormy conditions in the region.

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#Missing - The Irish Times reports that the search for a sea angler missing off the North Antrim coast has been postponed due to today's dangerously high winds.

The PSNI has also urged members of the public wishing to help with the search for the 38-year-old - who is believed to have been swept into the sea while fishing on rocks at Ramore Head yesterday - to step back and leave the search to the professionals.

“Deteriorating weather and sea conditions mean that the search environment is extremely challenging and police do not want to see anyone put at risk," said a spokesperson.

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#Missing - RTÉ News reports that the search resumed this morning (7 September) for a man reported missing in Howth yesterday evening.

Search and rescue services sprang into action after reports that a man was spotted in the water near the Baily Lighthouse.

It later emerged that the missing man is in his 40s, and fishing gear believed to belong to him was found in the area where he was last seen.

The search was suspended last night around 8pm due to fading light and resumed this morning, but the surface search has now concluded with no sign of the missing man.

Garda divers are assessing conditions for a possible underwater search later today.

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#MarineScience - A team of young scientists have lost a special weather balloon probe somewhere in Dundalk Bay - and they've turned to the internet for help.

CoderDojo mentor Daniel O'Reilly, who has been working with the teens on their project for a national science competition, has appealed on Twitter for assistance, posting an image of the missing item and its last known location.

The silver duct-taped box is marked as 'Infinity-1' and was launched from Armagh on a weather balloon last Thursday 22 August.

The probe parachuted from 30km into Dundalk Bay and has not been seen since. It's last known whereabouts were at co-ordinates 53.09795, -6.29013.

If anyone finds the box, either in full in part, on the shoreline or in the bay, they are urged to contact O'Reilly at +44 (0) 770 890 5697 or 087 689 0785, or email [email protected]

Published in Marine Science

#News - UTV News reports that a body recovered from the River Foyle on Thursday 9 May is that of missing Dublin teenager Kieran McKeon.

The 18-year-old was reported missing two months ago along with a friend, 21-year-old Alexandra O'Brien, whose body was found in the water close to Foyle Bridge in Derry on 14 March, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

It's thought that the two took their own lives in a suicide pact, after eyewitness reports described two people falling into the river from the bridge.

Personal items said to belong to O'Brien and McKeon were found on the bridge which sparked off the search operation led by Foyle Search and Rescue, which had continued every evening since at low tide, with a full search once a week.

UTV News has more on the story HERE.

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#MissingSwimmerRTÉ News is reporting that a swimmer taken from the water after going missing off Dalkey Island in Dublin Bay this morning (Sunday 7 April) has died.

Earlier this evening The Irish Times reported that the 35-year-old man was in a critical condition in Tallaght Hospital after being recovered from the water off Sorrento Terrace.

Lifeboat volunteers with Dun Laoghaire RNLI and the Irish Coast Guard's Dublin-based helicopter Rescue 116 were involved in the search which began around 11am today after the swimmer failed to return to shore.

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#News - The body of a Meath teenager who went missing in the early hours of Easter Monday has been found in the River Blackwater, as the Irish Independent reports.

Ricky McDermott, 17, disappeared after a night out in Virginia, Co Cavan on Sunday night.

Following a search launched on Monday morning, The Irish Times reports that a body was recovered from the River Blackwater in Virginia around 5pm yesterday (2 April) by the Boyne Fishermen’s Rescue and Recovery service.

In other news, the man pulled from the water near Portstewart Harbour yesterday has died.

BBC News reports has named the deceased as Stanley Duncan, who was chief executive of the Driver and Vehicle Agency in Northern Ireland.

It's understood that the 57-year-old has been fishing at rocks near the harbour when he fell into the sea by Victoria Terrace.

Published in News Update

#GalwayBay - Galway Bay FM reports that the search for a missing Galway man has been expanded to a coastal search.

Tom Ward, 39, was last seen in Galway city centre on 7 February, and was reported missing by his family 10 days later.

Gardaí stepped up their search to the shoreline areas of Galway Bay adjoining the city earlier this week, enlisting Civil Defence volunteers to search as far as Kinvara in the south-east corner of the bay.

Published in Galway Harbour

#Missing - A body recovered from the sea off north Co Dublin yesterday may be that of a man who went missing from Rush at Christmas.

The Irish Independent reports that a post-mortem is being carried out on the body to confirm if it is that of 24-year-old Paul Byrne, who was last seen in the early hours of Christmas Day.

Fishermen in the Irish Sea made the grim discovery in their nets yesterday and brought the body to Skerries harbour after 8pm.

The Irish Independent has more on the story HERE.

Published in News Update
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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.