Marine News from John Kinsman
Coastwatch Officer
Over £140,000 has so far been raised to help locate the bodies of two missing fishermen who are feared dead in the Nancy Glen tragedy last month. The appeal aims to salvage the stricken 40ft trawler and pay for funeral costs for crew members Duncan MacDougal and Przemek Krawczk.
A Clyde Fishermen’s Association spokesman said they aimed to get closure for the Tarbert families. The spokesman added “all our effort will go into retrieving our fellow fishermen”
The two fishermen are believed to be trapped beneath the capsized trawler in Loch Fyne. Another crew member John Millar was rescued after the horror on Thursday January 18th. During the incident lifeboats from three stations including Arran and Coastguard rescue teams took part in the search and rescue operation.
The Loch Fyne tragedy is the latest in a string of disasters to strike Scottish fishermen. Fisherman James Noble of Fraserburgh died when the trawler Ocean Way capsized off the Northumberland coast in 2014; the bodies of two others were never found. The Solway Harvester scallop dredger sank in a storm off the Isle of Man in 2000 with the loss of all seven crew, all from Dumfries. In 1985 the trawler Mahiri l sank in the same area; the bodies of the crew were never found. Four fishermen perished when the Peterhead trawler Sapphire was sunk by a freak wave off Peterhead in October 1997.