Just after midday on Friday 24 June 2011 NSRI Hermanus volunteers were activated following reports of a man swept off the Hermanus harbor wall.
According to reports a local whale watching boat crew, who were in the harbor at the time, launched a rubber-duck, after witnessing the man being swept off the harbor wall, and they managed to recover the man from the sea.
On arrival on-scene NSRI Hermanus medics and Metro EMS paramedics conducted extensive efforts to resuscitate the man who was found to be pulseless and breathless but after all efforts to resuscitate the man were exhausted by paramedics he was declared dead.
The body of the man was handed into the care of Police and the Forensic Pathology Services and although it is suspected that the man died from drowning an autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death.
Police will open an inquest docket.
It is believed that the man is a local aged in his late 30’s but it was not clear (to the NSRI) as to the purpose of him being on the harbor wall at the time.
Large swells prevailing at the time of the incident and high tide are suspected to have contributed to waves crashing over the harbor wall at the time of the incident.
The NSRI are appealing to locals and tourists to exercise extreme caution around the coast during winter months. The South African coastline is notorious for big sea swells during winter storms.
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