At 16h00 on Saturday 23 November, NSRI Port Elizabeth volunteer sea rescue duty crew were activated following reports of a man missing in the Fence surfing area between Kings Beach and the Port of Port Elizabeth harbour wall.
“According to friends of a 28 year old Port Elizabeth man, he had waded into the sea and was believed to have swum out to the vicinity of the harbour wall to collect mussels. A friend had last seen the man as he disappeared around the curve of the harbour wall and out of sight. At that stage he was reportedly still wading in the calm surf. At approximately 14h00, having failed to return, the friend then searched for him and not finding him had then raised the alarm.
“NSRI Port Elizabeth dispatched rescue swimmers and a 4×4 sea rescue vehicle and launched sea rescue craft BOARDWALK RESCUER and EIKOS RESCUER IV.
“The SA Police Services, a Police helicopter, a Police Dive Unit, The Nelson Mandela Bay Beach Managers office, Coastal Water Rescue, Nelson Mandela Bay Fire and Rescue Services were activated.
“On arrival on-scene a sea, shore and air search commenced immediately for the missing man while Police and Sea Rescue authorities investigated all other possibilities to make certain that the man had not maybe come out of the water somewhere else and could maybe have gone home without telling his friend but all possibilities were ruled out when despite a full-scale air, sea and shore search and despite a wide scale land based search no sign of the missing man has been found.
“Despite calm seas, a 1 meter swell with breaking surf against the harbour wall deflecting waves creates a strong sea surge in the vicinity of where the man, who was last seen wading in water, would have had to have started swimming (to reach where mussels can be collected in that vicinity).
“An intensive sea search included rescue craft covering an extensive search area up to 4 nautical miles in the direction of the drift, rescue swimmers free diving and Police Divers carrying out an extensive scuba dive search and Nelson Mandela Bay Fire and Rescue Services using a heat seeking FLIR infra red search device and the Police helicopter covering a wide search of the area while the shoreline and amongst the dollosse were extensively scoured by the shore rescue crews.
“Sea conditions and visibility were good in 12 degree sea temperatures.
“The missing man’s father has been located by Police and both he and the friend are receiving trauma counseling by Police trauma counselors.
“The search continued until well after dark and will be resumed at first light.
“The man is missing and Police have opened an investigation into the incident.”
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