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Source: ONE News -
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One man is dead and another still missing after a fishing trip turned deadly.
It's believed the two men and a companion were flounder fishing near Kawakawa Bay at the top of the Firth of Thames south east of Auckland.
Coastguard skipper Izaak Bates says his pager went off at 10 to five on Saturday morning. The coastguard had been informed that people had woken to cries for help.
The cries were from two Tongan men who had been spear fishing for flounder on foot along the Clevedon River mouth.
Clevedon resident Paul Chamberlain says he heard a man call out "help me, help me I'm drowning".
He says he responded immediately.
"And I quickly got dressed, raced down to the river, and yelled out 'ahoy, anybody down there', and there was no response."
Peter Chamberlain, another Clevedon resident, says the two men were calling out and then it all went quiet.
"They must have drowned fairly quickly, they didn't last long."
Peter called 111, sparking a sea and air search.
Coastguard plucked one body from the water and were still searching for the other man with police divers on saturday.
Police also spoke to a third man who had started out on the fishing trip, but returned to the car before the other two got into trouble in the high tide.
Sergeant John Saunders of the Police Maritime Unit says the Westpac helicopter saw a line of fairly distinctive footprints.
"That led literally to the end of the channel and disappeared. The inference to be drawn from that is that they were travelling out looking for flounder on fairly flat group, stepped inadvertently into the deeper channel and got carried away by the incoming tide."
Rescue workers say lifejackets could have saved their lives.
"That's a key thing for people to have lifejackets and so forth. And make sure they tell someone what time there leaving what time they're coming back and where they're going," says Bates.
Police divers searched the area once more before sun down.
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