THE hunt for diver Matthew Harvey highlights the difficulty of search operations. Harbour master Captain Peter Gill said they were even harder when the weather was poor, as it was over the weekend.

‘A layperson who doesn’t understand how big the sea is might find it remarkable and people’s expectations tend to be high, but it’s an extremely difficult job,’ he said.

Mr Harvey was pulled from the water near Gold Fisher rock, off Fermain, at about 7pm on Monday. It was only a short distance from where he is thought to have entered the water about 58 hours before.

Capt. Gill, who was the search co-ordinator, said he had never heard of anyone being pulled from the sea alive in local waters after such a long time. A large search operation, which went from Les Hanois up to and including Amfroque ‘the Humps’ and across to Sark, had drawn a blank.

‘This guy was lost in an area where the British Rowing Championships and the following day the World Rowing Championships were taking place, so there were literally hundreds of pairs of eyes out there and not just a few.’

He said that at any one time from late Saturday onwards, at least 11 boats were officially involved with the search and there were more unofficially. Radio messages were also sent to all vessels in the area asking them to keep an eye out for the diver.

‘We had everything but the kitchen sink out there over the weekend and the amount of people who were looking must have been in the hundreds.

‘It demonstrates just how difficult it is to conduct a search, particularly when the weather conditions were like they were at the weekend with strong wind and rough sea.’

He was delighted that Mr Harvey had been rescued and said the diver might have only a small indication of what happened while he was missing.

‘There is a suggestion that he might have drifted around to the south and been on a rock, but until we can speak to him, that is just conjecture.’

He said that people expected a search team to get it right every time, but luck was needed as well.

‘I’m just overjoyed for him.

‘If there’s anything we can learn from this that will improve our ability to respond, then we will implement it.’