Hennie Niehaus, NSRI Wilderness station commander, said; “At 16h16 on 8 September 2011, NSRI Wilderness volunteer duty sea rescue crew were activated following reports of an angler (or anglers) swept off rocks between Herolds Bay and Ballot Bay, near Wilderness.
“Our NSRI volunteer duty crew launched our sea rescue craft SERENDIPITY and our DISCOVERY rescue runner, and Metro EMS ambulance, a Metro EMS rescue squad, the SA Police Services and ER-24 ambulance service were activated.
“On arrival on-scene, along a barely accessible part of the coastline, an extensive sea and shore searched commenced for an adult male angler reported to have gone missing after apparently being swept off rocks while fishing. It appears that a further two adult male anglers had managed to get to shore after also being swept off the rocks and both of these men have been attended to by Metro EMS paramedics and they are stable (it is not yet clear if they will be required to be transported to hospital and it is quite a hike to get back to the roadway from where the men were fishing).
“No sign of the missing man has been found. A search is continuing. Police divers have been summoned to the scene.
“It appears, at this stage, that the alarm was raised only quite some time after the incident occurred (apparently because of the barely accessible terrain and because of no cell-phone signal at the site of the incident) although these details are still being accumulated by rescue officials and clearer details can only be made once all of the information has been gathered.
“Police are in the process of opening an inquest docket.”
