Rescue efforts will continue on Saturday for a missing fisherman who is believed to have jumped overboard to retrieve items which fell into the water near Hawston harbour, between Hermanus and Kleinmond in the Western Cape, on Friday.
National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) spokesperson Craig Lambinon said the Kleinmond duty crew were activated after eyewitnesses reported what they believed to be a capsized boat, with two people onboard, 200m offshore of Hawston harbour. One man made it to shore but the second fisherman was missing.
He said a multi-disciplinary team comprising NSRI and police divers as well as paramedics responded.
“On arrival on the scene it was reported the small open fishing boat had not capsized, but one man, the 25-year-old skipper of the boat, had reportedly jumped off the boat into the water, we believe to recover personal items that had fallen out of the boat, and he had not surfaced from under water.”
Lambinon said an extensive search by the three NSRI rescue craft and NSRI rescue swimmers conducting free-dive sweeping-line search efforts and shoreline patrols, which included friends of the missing man launching a boat to assist in the search, has revealed no signs of the missing man.
Police divers assisted by NSRI, Metro EMS Rescue and Overstrand authorities will continue search efforts.
TimesLIVE
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