Lake tragedy spurs plea to honour rahui

RESPECT: A rahui, or restriction, has been placed at Lake Onoke and will be in force until Saturday.

Whitebaiters and anglers have been asked to honour a traditional Maori restriction on taking seafood from South Wairarapa waters where a man died after being swept into the ocean.

Witnesses say Greytown man Les Wong, 71, had been whitebaiting about 2pm on Tuesday near the mouth of Lake Onoke when he went to "scoop his net into the water, and he got swept out of the lake mouth and into the sea".

Police said a fisherman leaped into the water with a long line and buoyancy aid and swam about a half kilometre before reaching the unconscious man and bringing him back to shore, where waiting emergency workers fought in vain to revive him.

PJ Devonshire, Ngati Kahungunu ki Wairarapa chief executive, said he and Constable Nathan Riwai-Couch, police iwi liaison officer for Wairarapa, had yesterday travelled to the South Wairarapa coast where the man died and had placed the rahui, or restriction, on an area including the mouth of Lake Onoke and Lake Onoke.

Mr Devonshire said the South Wairarapa waters were calm yesterday when the rahui ceremony was performed in the area, where there were some people, unaware of the restriction, out whitebaiting.

He said owners of the Lake Ferry Hotel and Pirinoa Country Store had been asked to pass to customers and patrons that the restriction would be in force until Saturday. He asked that whitebaiters and anglers observe the rahui and hoped the brief restriction would be honoured.

"We've done what we needed to do, what was right to do, to show respect to the person who passed away."

A similar restriction was placed on a stretch of beach at Tora where Carterton man Michael Siemonek, 49, was found dead in a shallow tidal area.