MARINE accident investigators say it could take years to discover why a fishing boat sank off the North-East coast killing two men.

Brothers Rob Temple, 34, and Brian Allison, 27, both from County Durham, were aboard their fishing boat Jan Denise II when it was lost in rough weather last November.

The wreckage of the 36ft trawler was lifted from the seabed in December and investigators started the painstaking task of sifting through the evidence.

But yesterday, a spokesman for the Marine Accident Investigation Branch said: ''Every case is different and it could take months or even years.

''There were no survivors and nobody saw the boat go down so we are having to start from scratch and look at every possibility"

The steel-hulled trawler disappeared in heavy seas on November 17 and prompted one of the biggest sea and inshore searches in the region for many years.

Four days later, search teams using sonar equipment found a submerged vessel 150ft down and five miles east of the mouth of the River Tyne.

It was lifted from the seabed on December 13 and towed up the river before the water was pumped out. It was then hoisted on to land to allow investigators to start the search for clues.

The boat, which was registered in Scarborough and owned by Caley Fisheries, had sailed from the Fish Quay at North Shields, early on November 17 and was last seen returning to the Tyne.

The brothers, both from Fencehouses, near Chester-le-Street, and originally from Seaham, east Durham, were experienced trawlermen. Their bodies have never been found.