Grim find in search for missing fishermen

Rescuers are scouring a body of water with a volume nines times larger than Sydney Harbour. Picture: Marine Rescue NSW
Rescuers are scouring a body of water with a volume nines times larger than Sydney Harbour for two missingf fishermen. Picture: Marine Rescue NSW

A body has been found in the search for two men missing after they failed to return home from a boating trip in NSW’s remote Snowy Mountains region.

Emergency services were called to Lake Eucambene, near Adaminaby, shortly after 11pm on Wednesday after reports to men, both aged 73, were missing.

Police, with assistance from the NSW SES, the Westpac helicopter and Marine Rescue, launched an extensive search of the waterway and nearby bushland.

Marine Rescue NSW is assisting police, SES, and the Westpac Rescue helicopter is searching for two missing fisherman. Picture: Marine Rescue NSW
Marine Rescue NSW is assisting police, SES, and the Westpac Rescue helicopter is searching for two missing fisherman. Picture: Marine Rescue NSW
Rescuers are scouring a body of water with a volume nines times larger than Sydney Harbour. Picture: Marine Rescue NSW
Rescuers are scouring a body of water with a volume nines times larger than Sydney Harbour. Picture: Marine Rescue NSW

Following their search, the body of a man was located on Wednesday. He has not been formally identified, but is believed to be one of the missing men.

Marine Rescue NSW Inspector Glenn Sullivan said search crews had been scouring the remote lake region since shortly before 3am on Thursday.

“The crew has been conducting a concentrated search on the water and will continue to do so under the instruction of NSW Police,” he said.

Video captured aboard the Alpine Lakes 21 search vessel revealed the difficulty investigators were up against in scouring the vast, alpine waters.

The Bureau of Meteorology reported temperatures as low as 3C overnight in nearby Adaminaby, with a severe weather warning issued for Thursday.

Damaging wind gusts in excess of 125 km are likely to develop over alpine areas across NSW on Thursday above 1900m during, before easing Friday.

Lake Eucambene is touted by tourism operators as one of the region’s best for fishing, and holds about nine times the volume of water of Sydney Harbor.

Last year, an 87-year-old man from Victoria died after the small boat he was in capsized at Braemar Bay, nearby a camping spot on the man-made lake.

The search for the second missing man continues.