The official search and rescue mission for missing fisherman Sam Outerbridge has been called off, although attempts to find some trace of the 55-year-old have moved into a fourth day.

Around half-a-dozen vessels, including Marine Police and friends and family, were out scouring the seas again yesterday but there were no sightings of the popular fisherman, who went missing on Tuesday evening.

The family of Mr. Outerbridge are all but resigned to losing their loved one, who is thought to have been pulled overboard in some kind of struggle ? his broken glasses were found in the cockpit of his 44-foot fishing boat, the

A number of relatives have congregated at Mr. Outerbridge?s Hamilton Parish home awaiting any news, while others joined in the search off the South Shore.

?We have moved out of search and rescue mode and into more of a recovery mode,? a spokesman for Harbour Radio told

?There are still a number of vessels, some of them on a voluntary basis, out searching for any trace of Mr. Outerbridge or Mr. Outerbridge himself.

?We began to scale things down after the aerial search by the US Coastguard was concluded.?

He added that the recovery search would continue again today.

Mr. Outerbridge?s boat was found floating empty three-and-a-half miles south southwest of Castle Island at 10.20 p.m. on Tuesday.

The authorities had been originally alerted by his wife when Mr. Outerbridge failed to return home.