Body recovered from sea near Blackrock

The body of a fisherman has been recovered during a search and rescue operation in Galway Bay this evening.

The man's body was taken from the water around one mile west of Blackrock.

 

The Irish Coastguard was alerted at about 3.30pm by a local fisherman who came across a local fishing boat with its engine running and no one on board, in an area south of Tawin Island off Maree, Oranmore.

Galway RNLI Lifeboat launched from Galway Docks and were joined by the Aran Island all-weather RNLI Lifeboat, the Irish Coastguard Helicopter from Shannon and the Casla Bay Coastguard Lifeboat. Within an hour they were joined in the search by nine local fishing boats from across the bay.

They started the search south of the bay and moved north where they concentrated their efforts in the last two hours.

The Aran Islands RNLI Lifeboat recovered the casualty about one mile west of Blackrock and proceeded to Galway Harbour where the emergency services were waiting.

The man was pronounced dead on arrival at University Hospital Galway