Police have grave fears for missing diver

STRATEGY: Members of the police National Dive Squad and volunteers from Mangonui Fire Brigade discuss the search so far. PHOTO / PETER DE GRAAF

Mystery surrounds the fate of an experienced diver who disappeared while freediving for kina just 50m offshore in Doubtless Bay.

Police were due to decide last night whether to continue searching today for the 25-year-old Aucklander reported missing about 3pm on Thursday at Cable Bay.

Yesterday teams of police and Far North Land Search and Rescue volunteers scoured the rocks at either end of the beach while four members of the police National Dive Squad, fresh from recovering the wreckage of a plane which crashed into Lake Taupo, searched the seabed with help from Mangonui Fire Brigade members. More than a dozen members of the missing man's family waited anxiously on shore for news.

The head of Northland police Search and Rescue, Senior Sergeant Cliff Metcalfe, said he had grave fears for the missing man given that he had been diving close to shore and had still not shown up.

The man went out by himself while a friend watched from shore. When his dive buoy stopped moving the friend went out to investigate, finding the man's catchbag and speargun tied to the buoy but no sign of the diver. Police, family and members of public carried out an extensive search on Thursday aided by Coastguard, Ahipara Surf Rescue and the Kerikeri-based Coastguard aircraft.

Family members found one of the missing man's gloves overnight. The second was found when the official search resumed at first light yesterday. The police dive squad arrived about 11am, first searching the seabed where the man was last seen, then carrying out a systematic grid search of the wider area. A decision would be made at nightfall about whether to continue today, Mr Metcalfe said.

"He's an experienced diver, he's been diving here for the last four to five days without incident, and he was in 3-5m of water 50m offshore ... so it's a really a mystery what's happened."

Mr Metcalfe said this summer had already seen an exceptional number of drownings, many of which could have been avoided with simple precautions.

"The fine weather means there's large numbers of people on the water, but they're making the same basic mistakes and paying for it with their lives," he said.

He urged swimmers to be aware of powerful rips on the west coast and boaties to always wear a lifejacket and let someone know where they were going. Divers should not dive alone, or have someone watching all the time, and young children needed to be watched constantly.

"Take your eyes off them for a moment and they're gone."

It is understood the 6-year-old girl who got into difficulty at Oke Bay, near Rawhiti, on Thursday remains in a serious condition in Starship Hospital.

Complicating yesterday's search was a stiff onshore wind which was stirring up whitecaps, and the fact the missing man was wearing a green camouflage freediving suit.