Fishing crew rescued after boat sinks

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The crew of a fishing boat have been rescued from a life raft after their vessel sank off Tauranga today.

A beacon alert from the 18-metre boat Rebecca May was picked up 92 kilometres off the coast of Tauranga at midday by the Rescue Coordination Centre.

Vessels in the area were alerted and a helicopter from Whitianga identified a "large amount of smoke, along with a liferaft and buoys" but could not see the crew from the boat.

The smoke was from an emergency flare that had been set off, not from the boat, said a Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) spokeswoman.

Nearby vessel Lady Columbo responded to the call and picked up all three crew members from the liferaft at around 1.30pm.

The Lady Columbo also recovered the life raft and emergency beacon.

The Westpac rescue helicopter, based in Whitianga over the summer, flew to the scene in case the ship's crew needed to be winched to safety.

Helicopter crewman Dean Harvey said the crew had been rescued ahead of their arrival, but the helicopter crew continued to the scene to make sure everything was safe.

There was "no sign" of the vessel itself by the time they arrived.

"There was a lot of surface debris - buoys and floating debris from the boat that sunk," Mr Harvey said.

MNZ said no injuries were reported and the cause of incident is unknown at this stage.