A DOG walker has been praised by coastguards after his quick-thinking helped save the life of a fisherman.

The member of the public was walking his dog near Trelissick Gardens, Falmouth, when he spotted an unmanned punt drifting up the river Fal shortly after 3.30pm on Saturday.

He contacted Falmouth Coastguards to report the unmanned vessel before calling again a short time later to report a man struggling to keep his head above water a few feet from the boat.

The man in the water, it later turned out, was an oyster fisherman who had been wading through the Fal and using his punt to store the oysters.

However, his punt began to drift down river, forcing the fisherman to try and wade after it.

But the fisherman became caught in a current and was bobbing up and down in the water, unable to get back on board his vessel.

Henry Purbrick, watch officer and Falmouth coastguard, praised the dog walker and members of the rescue teams with Falmouth inshore lifeboat and RNAS Culdrose, who helped pull the fisherman to safety.

Mr Purbrick said: "The water was extremely cold, so had it not been for the quick-thinking of the member of the public and the persistence of the rescue crews to obtain as much information as possible out of the caller, it could have ended in tragedy."

The lifeboat crew arrived on scene a few minutes after the second phone call, where they spotted the oyster fisherman close to the shore, with the two walkers trying to help him gain a foothold on the rocks.

He was unable to help himself because of exhaustion, caused by struggling to with the strong current.

Two of the lifeboat crew then leapt into the water, scrambled ashore, and assisted the walkers to get the casualty onto the rocks, where he was given immediate first aid.

The casualty was then hoisted into the helicopter and taken to Royal Cornwall Hospital in Treliske, near Truro.

Last night, he was said to be in a stable condition.

The lifeboat crew later picked up the drifting oyster punt and towed it to a safe berth on pontoons.

Mr Purbrick said of the rescue: "The fisherman was really struggling in the water, and was barely conscious by the time the lifeboat got to him.

"He was in a pretty bad way and wouldn't have been able to last much longer in the water without getting hypothermia.

"Thankfully the fisherman is now in a stable condition, but it could have ended very differently."

A hospital spokesman added: "The casualty is recovering well but he is a very lucky man."

An angler was rescued from the sea yesterday after falling from rocks.

Swansea Coastguard received a call from the man's wife at 12.40pm reporting that she had just witnessed him fall off rocks at Broadstrand near Ilfracombe, Devon.

Ilfracombe Coastguard Rescue team was launched with the help of two Ilfracombe RNLI lifeboats.

The lifeboats arrived and were able to recover the man who had spent 20 minutes in the water.

He was taken back to shore and taken to the local hospital for medical assessment and treatment.