Search for trawler crew called off

12 April 2012

A round-the-clock search for a missing trawler crew has been called off, the coastguard confirmed.

The four men on the Meridian disappeared along with their trawler during violent storms on the North Sea on Thursday night.

Rescue teams searching for the Scottish trawlermen found a body on Friday, but the three other crew members have not been found.

The crew have been named as Martin Gardner, 49, Edward Gardner, 50, and Ian Donald, 55, all from Fife, and Sidney Low, 52, from Aberdeen.

The decision by Norwegian Coastguard to end the search came as arrangements are being made for relatives of the unnamed trawlerman who was found to travel to Norway to identify the body.

On Saturday, the wife of one of the missing men urged Norwegian authorities not to end their search.

Julia Gardner, the wife of Meridian's Anstruther-based owner and skipper Martin Gardner, said she believed the men could be alive and appealed for the hunt to go on into tomorrow.

"We would appeal to them that it would go on for another day at least," she said.

"We still think that it's very possible and it's probable that they could still be alive even after this length of time."

She praised those involved in the rescue for their "great" efforts, but stressed that the search had not been going for a full 48 hours by the time it was called off.

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