The bodies of the drowned fishermen are lifted into an ambulance on the dockside at Dover on Saturday night. The men, three of them related, were all found without them. But four jackets were found floating in waters nearby, police said. It's like not wearing a seat belt in a car.
State law requires only that a life jacket be carried for each person in a boat.
The men from Hobart's northern suburbs are thought to have been on the water for the opening of Tasmania's crayfish season, traditionally a time for amateurs to set pots close to the rocky shores of the island state. The first alarm was raised at 3. 30pm on Saturday when a passing commercial fisherman reported sighting a body in the water near the southern tip of Bruny Island, off the Tasmanian mainland. Four bodies were found within a 300-metre radius of Pineapple Rocks, and a fifth just on dusk on Saturday night. Cray pots were set nearby, and their upturned boat still had its bow above the water.