Whitebaiter lauds lifejacket, jet boat after rescue at sea

Quick thinking, a jet boat and lifejacket may have saved a whitebaiter from certain death over the weekend.

Scott Bremner, 36, and his friend had been scoop netting whitebait at the Waitaki River mouth when he was struck by an unexpectedly strong wave.

‘‘I prepared myself for a wave that was coming in, which didn’t seem to be huge, and that just unexpectedly whacked my legs and knocked me over,’’ Bremner said.

His friend had attempted to help him by reaching out to Bremner with his whitebait scoop, but it was too late, he was already being swallowed up by the ocean.

‘‘I just drifted further and further away,’’ Bremner said.

He had drifted out about 150 to 200 metres when waders, bought that day, quickly filled up with water, as did the whitebait bucket still clipped on to him.

With about 200kg of weight, Bremner is convinced he would not be here if not for his lifejacket.

Fate seemed to be on his side as Stephen Robertson, of Oamaru, joined an impromptu rescue operation to retrieve Bremner.

‘‘I was trout fishing with a mate of mine. We’d taken my jet boat up for the afternoon to catch the high tide,’’ Robertson said.

During the relaxing Sunday afternoon of fishing, Robertson heard an urgent call from his friend to grab the boat as a whitebaiter had been pulled out to sea by the swell.

‘‘He yelled at me to get the boat,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, lying on his back amid the two-metre swell, Bremner began thinking of his young family at home.

He said he was not aware anyone was coming for him over the sound of the swell.

‘‘What goes through your head is unexplainable really.

‘‘You are thinking of more than what you would want to be. You are wanting to make it home.’’

Robertson launched the jet boat after Bremner had been in the water about 10 minutes.

‘‘We couldn’t see him in the swell,’’ Robertson said.

He navigated through the choppy water and somehow found Bremner about 200m from the mouth in the fog.

‘‘The fog had come in so an aerial rescue would have been impossible,’’ Robertson said.

Bremner was too heavy to pull into the boat so the men aboard dragged him along until they reached the safety of the river mouth.

It is his second season whitebaiting and he still considers himself a newcomer but said such an accident could happen at any time.

‘‘It doesn’t matter how much knowledge you have. This kind of thing can happen to anyone. I’d be keen to go out there again, but I won’t be wearing waders,’’ he said.

He advises all whitebaiters to have a lifejacket, someone to watch over them as well as listening to the experience of seasoned whitebaiters.

‘‘I think it was a big wake-up call for myself, my mate, the fisherman and the other whitebaiters there on the day.’’