Missing fishing boat crew members named online as search continues for vessel off North Wales coast

The three crew members on board the missing fishing boat have been named online as Carl McGrath, Steve Minard and Ross Ballentine.

The search for the three on board the fishing boat missing off the coast of North Wales is set to resume, the coastguard has said.

A search, involving several lifeboats, a helicopter and a plane, took place on Thursday after the fishing vessel failed to return to port at midnight as expected.

Family members of the crew on board the missing fishing boat have since set up a fundraising page to raise awareness of the search and to raise money for the RNLI.

Lauren Hynes, the sister of crew member Carl McGrath set up the page and said: "On the 28th of January my brothers (Carl McGrath) boat with three of his crew members Ross and Alan were meant to arrive in the Conwy area around 11pm but did not show. "The last contact we had with them on the boat was at 9:30pm, we then tried to contact them again at 12pm but had no contact. We are working with the RNLI and police at this time. 

"The search has been going on for 48 hours we are getting extremely worried. 

"This page is to raise money for the RNLI as they have been working for hours and risking their lives.

"They have been absolutely fantastic and without them this search wouldn’t be possible."

Paul Frost from the RNLI told ITV News on Thursday that everybody involved in the search is "very concerned".

"Everybody involved in the rescue organisations and the search are very concerned now. It's coming up to nearly 24 hours since the vessel was last seen.

"There's obviously a lot of worry about what could have happened to it, where it's gone. All our thoughts are with the families of the people on board. We will carry on searching until either light stops us or the coastguard calls off the search."

Mr Frost added that the scale of the operation was particularly large and spanned hundreds of square miles.

He said: "We've been searching an area between Puffin Island and Hoylake at the entrance to the River Mersey, up to about 15 miles out.

"It's over hundreds of square miles, normal lifeboat operations are between 15 and 20 miles but the various search units are criss-crossing the whole of the area."