Sea search for Jack Bray becomes a body recovery mission

UPDATE: WEDNESDAY 5PM

The body of a man suspected to be missing Perth man Jack Bray has been located near Little Quarram Beach near Denmark.

The body was found about 3.5km from Boat Harbour where Mr Bray dived into the water to save his friend who was swept off the rocks on Saturday afternoon.

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Police have ruled out hope of finding Perth man Jack Bray alive after he disappeared off the coast west of Denmark four days ago.

Water police divers and rescue authorities will continue to search the coast around Boat Harbour west of Denmark today but are now treating the search as a body recovery.

Mr Bray, 31, is suspected to have drowned after he jumped into the water and helped save his friend Erica on Saturday afternoon after she was swept off rocks by a wave posing for a photo.

Yesterday morning his family maintained strong hope he would be found alive but Inspector Mark Twamley said the situation had changed in the past 24 hours.

“I sat down with the family and had a discussion with them last night, they’re very practical sort of people and real and have a long history with the ocean so they understood everything we were dealing with and it was just an explanation to them that from today we would be calling it a recovery operation,” he said.

“The chances of survival are pretty much down to zero.

“After today we will be looking at what resources we will utilise to try and recover. Now is the time when nature takes its course in terms if he is on the bottom of the ocean, he may start to rise to the top now and that’s what we will be looking at over the next few days.”

Denmark police are calling for witnesses who were at Boat Harbour on Saturday afternoon and saw the incident unfold to call them on 9848 0500.