QLD: Fisherman drowns after being swept off rocks

AAP General News (Australia)
04-27-1999
QLD: Fisherman drowns after being swept off rocks

BRISBANE, April 27 AAP - A fisherman swept to his death off rocks on North Stradbroke
Island today might have been knocked unconscious before he fell into the ocean, rescuers said.

The man, aged in his 50s, was fishing alone at North Gorge on the eastern side of the
island just off Brisbane when the accident happened about midday.

His body was washed into a swirling ocean ravine between rocky outcrops, making retrieval
dangerous.

Lifesavers used the Westpac Rescue helicopter to lower crewman Byron Tune into the ravine
to recover the body.

Fellow crewman Scott Sorrell said: "The fisherman may have hit his head on the rocks when
the waves crashed over him".

Today's fatality took the number drowned in Queensland seas this summer to 14, Surf Life
Saving Queensland said.

AAP geb/was/it

KEYWORD: FISHERMAN LEAD

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