ECHO In The Irish Sea – we are used to reading that our small survey fleet are working in some far flung part of the globe, so it was interesting to learn that the Survey Ship ECHO had gone to the assistance of a French trawler in a foul Irish Sea.   The ECHO helped to provide shelter from the weather so that a French fisherman could be winched to safety off the Welsh coast having shepherded the boat to calmer waters.   The French fishing vessel ALF was found in a five-metre high swell which meant that it was initially impossible to lower a winchman safely and both the efforts by an RAF Search and Rescue helicopter and an RNLI lifeboat were thwarted.    The ECHO was on patrol nearby, was summoned to help the rescue operation.   What a The French fishing vessel was doing in the Irish Sea remains unexplained.