Lifeboat crews are expected to resume searching for two missing fishermen after a body thought to be that of the third crewman was found at sea.
The crew of the Purbeck Isle set off from Weymouth on Thursday morning but the alarm was raised when the 36ft crabber failed to return.
The man's body was found at about 17:30 BST on Friday.
Attention will also focus on an object found by a survey vessel on the sea bed at a depth of 180ft.
Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokesman Fred Caygill said teams were hoping to send down specialist equipment to look at the object.
"We were offered the assistance of the Odyssey Explorer, which is a survey vessel which normally surveys the sea bed as part of its commercial work," he said.
"It is very difficult to identify what that particular object is. We are concentrating on trying to identify this to either discount it or count it in, as the case may be," he added.
'Popular lads'
The search effort which has involved at times a coastguards helicopter, lifeboats, a Royal Navy Destroyer and a US Navy supply vessel, has been centred on a 10-mile area off the coast of Portland Bill.
Andy Alcock, 59, secretary of the Weymouth and Portland Fisherman and Licensed Boatman Association, said local fishermen had tried phoning the men's mobile phones.
"The lads had tried to phone the vessel and got just cut off lines, all three mobile phones just cut off, which is never a good sign," he said.
The three men, who have not been formally named, were "popular lads", said Mr Alcock.
In January of 2011 the then crew of the Purbeck Isle had to be airlifted to safety when the boat began taking on water.
"They called for assistance, the lifeboat was launched a helicopter was scrambled and they were evacuated off the boat and the vessel was taken under tow back here to Weymouth," said Mr Caygill.
But he added that the vessel had since undergone "a major refit and has worked quite steadily since".
- BBC
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