Temporary fishing ban, or rāhui, at Taranaki beach after woman swimmer dies

Monday, 13 January 2020

A person died at Oakura Beach, Taranaki, on Monday evening.

A rāhui, or temporary ban, has been placed on taking shellfish or fishing at a popular Taranaki surf beach after a woman died after getting into difficulty in heavy swells on Monday night.

The rāhui along Oakura Beach ends on Sunday, a Facebook post issued by Ngāti Tairi hapū on the Oakura Pa page said.

Police have yet to release the name of the woman who had been swimming with a 47-year-old man at the beach around 8.25pm.

Surfers, off-duty lifeguards and swimmers were unable to save her life after she was pulled from the sea in a critical condition and unable to be revived.

She died at the scene.

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The man was taken to Taranaki Base Hospital by St John Ambulance in a moderate condition and was discharged later on Monday night.

Oakura resident Billy Hunter was at the beach at the time and said emergency services worked on the woman for more than 45 minutes before she was pronounced dead.

Hunter said when the incident happened surfers, swimmers and local surf life club members helped get the pair out of the water.

He didn't know if they were locals but said it was unlikely as they didn't realise the conditions at the beach were not safe.

'It was a new swell, really new, raw and s… loads of water moving around. It was dangerous,' he said.

'The water is freezing, it's like winter at the moment.'

Hunter said the pair's swimwear was not appropriate for the conditions.

On Monday the swell had doubled in size from about 1m in the morning to about 2.5m by early evening with a low tide at 6.50pm.

By the time the couple had got in the water the swells were around six foot high, he said.

On Tuesday the water temperature at Oakura Beach was below average, sitting at 16.6 degrees celsius.

Hunter said the swimmers got in the water in front of the campground before being swept along around 500 metres in six-foot swells to the front of the surf club, where they were pulled from the water.

There were no lifeguards on duty at the time but a couple of off-duty club members jumped in to the sea to help save them.

But even for them the surf was daunting, he said.

'Some of the clubbie guys, the swimmers, weren't even taking the waves, they were pulling back.'

A St John Ambulance spokeswoman said two ambulances and one rapid response crew attended.

The death is the sixth of its type nationally this year.

The official holiday period from December 24 to January 3 saw six preventable drownings.

It follows the death of Valeliano Mita, 40, who drowned at Seatoun Beach in Wellington after jumping in the water to save his son's life.

On the weekend Masterton father Darren Southon, 48, and his 11-year-old son Joshua died while diving off the Wairarapa coast.

Their bodies were recovered by the Police National Dive Squad on Saturday evening.

A kayaker is still missing after he was overdue and his kayak was found empty on Lake Ellesmere, south of Christchurch.