KEY POINTS:
The search for a missing crewman from a Korean fishing vessel has been called off after no sign of him was found.
The 54-year-old man was reported missing from the ship about 90km off the Banks Peninsula coastline about 6pm yesterday.
Searchers covered about 20 square kilometres and were out until about 3am this morning, but all ships had left the area by this morning, The Rescue Coordination Centre (RCCNZ) spokesman Steve Corbett said.
"The helicopter crew managed to spot the life ring and the raft the crew threw overboard and they hadn't drifted very far. It was actually a very small search area, and if he was there, our crew would have been able to find him," he told NZPA.
Neither the sea-level search party of a NZ fishing vessel, a NZ tanker, and the Lyttelton Coastguard boat, nor an aerial search found any sign of the man.
RCCNZ would seek further information from the ship's master when he arrived in Bluff on May 1.
The Korean Embassy had been informed of the incident.
NZP
