Family suspect heart attack in beach death

Alesana Seneka's brother-in-law praised members of the Papamoa Surf Life Saving Club. Photo / File

The grieving family of a man who died at a Bay of Plenty beach on Tuesday evening suspect a heart attack may have killed him.

Alesana Seneka, a 44-year-old kiwifruit orchard worker from Auckland, was setting crab pots with a relative at Papamoa Beach in chest-high water when he got into trouble shortly before 7.30pm.

Another relative who was among family members on the beach and helped to drag Mr Seneka from the surf told the Herald that the tragedy unfolded in just minutes.

Lotau Kapua of Tauranga remains uncertain as to what happened to his brother-in-law, who had been visiting his home just a block back from the beach.

He first knew something was wrong when he saw Mr Seneka waving his arms in the air.

He and another family member raced into the water and pulled him on to the sand, where they helped paramedics with chest compressions and CPR.

After 30 minutes, he was pronounced dead.

"We still can't understand what went wrong ... They just took in some of the traps for the crabs and put them down," Mr Kapua said.

"He didn't drown. Something just stopped his movement. Maybe it was the pressure in his body, or something to do with his heart."

Mr Kapua praised the police and members of the Papamoa Surf Life Saving Club.

A post-mortem examination of Mr Seneka's body was conducted yesterday.