One dead, five missing in sea tragedy

One person is dead and five are missing after a family trip near Stewart Island resulted in one of the worst maritime tragedies in recent memory.

A massive search and rescue operation involving helicopters, ships and at least a dozen leisure boats was under way in near freezing conditions late last night to hunt for any sign of the missing group - two of whom were believed to be children.

Search and rescue teams found three survivors from the sunken fishing trawler Kotuku, which overturned about 6.30pm. They were taken to Southland Hospital for treatment and observation. Maritime New Zealand and searchers last night told the Herald on Sunday a body had been found in the water although this was unconfirmed by police.

At midnight, 16 boats from the Stewart Island community was still desperately hunting to find survivors.

The group of nine - believed to be three generations of a well known Maori family from Bluff - were returning from a muttonbirding trip to the Titi Islands when the boat sunk about 15km off the Stewart Island coast, near Womens Island. Ngai Tahu leader Sir Tipene O'Reagan said he understood a 14-year-old and a six-year-old was on board, along with their mother.

Sir Tipene said the rest of the family was congregating at home but it was "too early" to contact them.

"I'm just sitting here waiting for details."

He said a friend, Gail Thompson, had been on a boat that set out from Kaihuka Island with the Kotuku travelling slightly behind.

"One was following the other.

"One arrived in Bluff - they looked around and the other boat hadn't arrived."

Rescue efforts were being hampered by poor weather and high seas in bone-chilling cold as a front swept up the country from the south. Met Service forecasted the seas to swell to at least five metres, and wind speeds to reach 35 knots.

"It's not going to ease off. You wouldn't want to be out there in this," a Met Service spokesman said last night.

Maritime NZ's Rescue Coordination Centre was still on standby five hours after the fishing trawler went down with a spokesman stating that the situation did not meet its criteria for getting involved in a search.

A spokesman said he did not know if an emergency locator beacon had been activated and said the Rescue Coordination Centre was not getting involved beyond diverting ships. It had not "at this stage" called on a Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion, which has the capability to search by air for people lost at sea. The spokesman said it had diverted five vessels: The seismic survey vessel Pacific Titan was due to arrive in the area at 2am today. The fishing boats San Discovery and Amatel Atlantis were expected to arrive about 3am today. The fishing vessels Oyang 70 and Oyang 79 were due to arrive at 3.30am.

A police spokesman said he did not know what had caused the accident or how it occurred.

Herbie Hansen from the Southern Isle Charters was contacted to join the search after 6pm and was frantically hunting the inky waters for any sign of life. "There's about a dozen boats out here searching. They've found three people and taken them back in. We don't know much ourselves - just there's some sign of debris on the surface," he said from his boat.

"There are kids on board, you know. We just keep going back and forth with our search lights checking. We've seen a bit of wreckage but that's all."

Phillip Smith, the skipper of Wildfire - another of the vessels searching for the missing group - was alerted at 7pm and said late last night there was a "dirty miserable rain falling".

He said the community was determined to find the missing people.

"We'll be here as long as it takes." He said drizzling rain made visibility difficult, and the temperature had dropped to six degrees celcius.

"This is the first time that I know we have had a search like this."

Frana Cardno, the Southland District mayor, said the sinking was surprising, as local fishermen were used to dealing with the unpredictable conditions off the coast.

"The fishing industry is smaller here now but I find it incredible. This would be the first for years."

Margaret Wright, the owner of Stewart Island Lodge which overlooks the search area, had watched the search unfold in Half Moon Bay.

She said a mist had made it impossible for the helicopters to scan the choppy waters, although the fishing boats were still searching at 10.30pm.

The mood on dry land was sombre.

"People are just milling around on the beach. There's not a lot we can do. It's quite sad."

Invercargill-based Stewart Island scenic flight operator Bill Moffatt said the water temperatures were about 11C.

"If they're in a life raft they'd be all right. But it's pretty cold. You'd have about an hour."