A Port Macquarie family is holding onto hope that their husband and father is found alive after a trawler he was on vanished without a trace off the Queensland coastline near Hervey Bay.

Doug Hunt’s family says the 38-year-old joined the crew of Night Raider on November 11 after answering an online advertisement.

An experienced fisherman in Queensland, West Australia, South Australia and Tasmania, Doug took up the job offer because of inconsistencies in securing full time work locally.

His partner Tracey Lee said the family is drawing on its incredible faith to get them through the nightmare.

“Doug has been missing for over three weeks. We are really starting to miss him. We haven’t seen him since November 9,” she said.

Adding to the deepening mystery is that the search has failed to find any trace of the trawler.

“There has been nothing washed up, no debris or anything has been found. This is a real mystery,” she said.

“We have six children – aged from 21 years down to six years. We miss him.”

One ray of hope, a mysterious mayday signal picked up on Tuesday off the coast of Bundaberg, has been investigated but has since been dismissed by Hervey Bay Water Police.

The incident follows the case of a missing fishing trawler that departed Urangan on November 11 travelled east through Breaksea Spit before communications ceased the following morning.

The trawler did not dock at its scheduled Sunshine Coast location on November 18, and there has been no sign of the three crew members.

The trawler departed Urangan at Hervey Bay on November 11 with a course set for the Sunshine Coast to arrive seven days later. Onboard were Doug, veteran professional fisherman Grant Sainty, 60, and a 24-year-old German backpacker.

When the trawler failed to arrive the following week, police launched an air, sea and land search for the missing vessel and men on November 25.

The incident follows the case of a missing fishing trawler that departed Urangan on November 11 travelled east through Breaksea Spit before communications ceased the following morning.

The trawler did not dock at its scheduled Sunshine Coast location on November 18, and there has been no sign of the three crew members.

Police have said the search was only undertaken a week later because their late arrival ‘was not deemed out of character by those known to the crew members’.

But Tracey says the search should have been instigated sooner.

“They actually lost tracking to the trawler the following day,” she says.

Tracey said a gofundme page set up by a cousin Karen Hutchison would be used to purchase Christmas gifts for the children.

“And I am trying to fund raise so I can attend a police briefing on Friday in Hervey Bay,” she added.

Hervey Bay Volunteer Marine Rescue’s Commodore John Smith said the search operation had been called off by the rescue coordination centre in Canberra.

He said sea conditions when the trawler left were ‘reasonably good’.

“Being a trawler, you would expect to find some debris. But there is nothing. So we are just at a loss as to what has actually happened here,” he said.

“We don’t know if they have had their gear snagged and either turned over or gone down.

“We have had two vessels lost off the Fraser Coast in the last two months. But in this instance, it is very strange that we cannot find anything relating to the trawler.”

While desperately holding onto her faith, Tracey thanked St Joseph’s Primary School – with the school holding a fund raising effort on Friday, the St Agnes Parish and the Honour Church for their support.

The donate to the family’s gofundme appeal CLICK HERE.