BUFORD — Authorities will continue sweeping the shoreline of Lake Lanier for a missing boater, but they will no longer use sonar equipment, according to a news release from the Department of Natural Resources.

DNR law enforcement rangers and Hall County Sheriff’s deputies have been searching the Cocktail Cove area for five days using side scan and sector scan sonar to attempt to locate Jerry Kornmeier, 57, of Snellville.

Kornmeier has been missing since about 5 p.m. Saturday. When authorities got there that evening, they found Kornmeier’s empty boat adrift in open water just outside Cocktail Cove, according to DNR public affairs officer Mark McKinnon.

The area they have been searching is “very deep with standing timber on the bottom,” according to the DNR, which makes it difficult to search.

“Rangers believe they have covered it as well as they possibly can with the electronic equipment,” the DNR states.

The sonar search Wednesday identified one possible target, just as it did Tuesday, but video from a remote operated vehicle determined it was not the missing boater.

Personnel from Hall County Fire Services and the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office also conducted shoreline sweeps throughout the day.