KEY POINTS:
The death of a man in the Hurunui River in North Canterbury yesterday took the 2008 drowning toll to 96.
The man, aged in his 40s, was swimming in the river near State Highway 1 with his family about 5pm.
Inspector John Doherty, of police southern communications, said other family members lost sight of him and emergency personnel were called.
A search was made by the Westpac rescue helicopter and four jet boats and the man's body was found about 1km downstream.
Last year is only the second year since records began in 1980 that the national drowning toll has been less than 100.
On Tuesday, search and rescue volunteers recovered the body of Otago University student Blair Andrew Martin, 21, from under a swimming pontoon on Lake Hawea in Central Otago.
Mr Martin was staying at a holiday home at Lake Hawea and was reported missing after friends discovered his clothes at the beach.
Drowning is the third highest cause of accidental death in New Zealand, after road crashes and falls.
The annual drowning toll has fallen since the 1980s, when it averaged 181 a year, to 119 in the five years to 2006.
Forty-three per cent of drownings happened during recreational water use, and 78 per cent of people drowned were male.
Water Safety NZ general manager Matt Claridge said people were generally aware of water safety but in summer they tended to relax a bit more.
Mr Claridge said the drowning toll was coming down, but there was now a generation of children who were not learning to swim because of the closing of school swimming pools.
- NZPA
