Search for missing boater Dr. John Jack MacKay scaled back, Bloomfield Ridge, N.B

The District 6 RCMP has scaled back search efforts for a missing boater who fell into the Miramichi River from a small fishing boat on Thursday afternoon.

81-year-old Dr. John Jack MacKay, of Fredericton, had been fishing with a 43-year-old man from Bloomfield Ridge when he fell overboard.

Searches of the river by boat and by RCMP dive teams from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, as well searches of the nearby shoreline by ground search and rescue volunteers have found no sign of Mr. MacKay.

Dr. MacKay was well known in the Boiestown and Doaktown areas. He is presumed to have drowned.

Members of the Boiestown and Doaktown fire departments, the departments of Fisheries and Oceans and Natural Resources, as well as members of the public also participated in the search effort.