Three individuals saved after a fishing vessel struck rocks in Northland.

At 0351 hours today a distress was heard on VHF Channel 16 from a 12m long line charter vessel stating they had struck rocks in the Bay of Islands location. Quickly after contact through VHF Radio was lost with the vessel nevertheless an EPIRB signal was picked up by the Rescue Coordination Centre (RCCNZ).

Coastguard Volunteers were paged to respond to the occurrence on Bay Rescue which left Doves Bay Marina 0420 hours for Whale Bay. In addition the Northland Emergency Services Helicopter (NEST)was entrusted to the area to use is Radio Direction Finding (RDF) equipment to locate the signal from the EPRIB.

Whilst the EPIRB was the brand-new 406 technology it was not fitted with GPS so three touch points with a satellite are required to form a triangulation, this put the vessel in Whale Bay nevertheless upon arrival Bay Rescue was not able to locate the vessel at that area so started a shore line search. At this point NEST showed up on scene and as Bay Rescue reversed they identified a light coming from coast.

An additional search of the location north of Whale Bay located the vessel on rocks with three individuals nearby under a cliff in Howe Bay, simply southwest of the 9 Pin Rocks in the Bay of Islands. Coastguard Volunteers on board Bay Rescue worked to safely recover the 3 survivors from the rocks who were shaken and slightly hypothermic but cohesive. They have actually now been transported by the Coastguard Rescue Vessel back to Doves Bay Marina to an awaiting ambulance.

90 % of the vessel is now underwater with the Northland Regional Harbourmaster informed due to the 1600 litres of diesel on board the vessel.

“This is another fantastic example of the numerous search and rescue companies collaborating in the best interest of the victim resulting in another sucessful result” states Georgie Smith, Coastguard spokesperson. “The fact that the vessel had several types of interaction onboard meant that when one failed another was able to be used, significantly reducing both the search area and time taken to find the vessel and its team”.

“The Coastguard Volunteers that reacted from Coastguard Bay of Islands were paged out from their homes to react in the early hours and now return back to base and continue with their day tasks. It’s remarkable truly” states Ms Smith.

Source: www.scoop.co.nz