Dedication and bravery marked difficult search

Tragedy came to the small Southland town of Bluff on Saturday 13 May when the fishing trawler Kotuku sank in Foveaux Strait with nine people onboard.

Acting Southland Area Commander Inspector Barry Taylor coordinated the police search and rescue operation in conjunction with the Rescue Coordination Centre in Wellington.

“It was one of the largest operations Southland has seen for some time,” says Barry. “At one stage 23 vessels plus ten trawlers were involved. There were easily hundreds of people out there searching.

“While the weather at the time of the sinking wasn’t bad, it deteriorated as night fell which made the search more difficult. We are grateful to the helicopter pilots – Richard Hayes and Graham Gale – who had access to night vision equipment which assisted greatly.”

The operation received intense media attention and police stepped up to the mark helping the family with press conferences.

“Understandably it was a very stressful time and we worked closely with the families to protect their privacy while meeting the media’s need for information,” says Barry.

“It is really important with operations of that size to have a staff member dedicated to handling media queries.”

Six of the nine onboard Kotuku died. Three bodies were recovered by search and rescue staff. The Police National Dive Team recovered another three from the wreck. OC of the Dive Team Senior Sergeant Bruce Adams provided a debrief for the families after the bodies were recovered.

“We normally make a point of having a private moment with families, if present, before and after searches to offer condolences, support and answer any questions we can to help them,” says Bruce.

Bruce says the recovery dives were not straight forward and involved careful planning to make the job as safe as possible.

“We were lucky with the weather, it was supposed to be unfavourable but held off for the morning and packed up in the afternoon.

“We were greatly assisted by Sergeant Ian Martin and Sergeant Brock Davis and their team in managing the operation; John and the crew of the vessel Kar Reece we were deployed off; and the crew of Shangra-La who located and marked the vessel’s position, which saved us using the first dives to actually locate meaning we could go straight into body recovery,” says Bruce.

Maritime search and rescue operations are part of the business of policing Southland’s rugged coastline and Barry has nothing but admiration for the dedication and bravery of all involved in the Kotuku operation.

“In particular the efforts of Ian and Brock in their search coordination roles and Detective Constable Dougall Henderson in rescuing skipper John Edminston from Women’s Island were nothing short of outstanding.