They’re just looking to provide kaimoana for their whānau.
But as the cost of living increases, Māori men in particular are more regularly putting their lives at risk in Hawke’s Bay waters while diving to get it. Tragically, some don’t come home.
Water Safety New Zealand chief executive Daniel Gerrard says deaths and incidents from rock fishing are on the rise.
Six people drowned in Hawke’s Bay in 2022, higher than the 10-year average of 4.3, according to the 2022 Water Safety New Zealand Drowning Prevention Report.
Two of those drownings were during underwater activity, which includes diving, freediving, snorkelling and kai gathering. Underwater activity is now the fourth most common cause of drowning in NZ.
Māori males are significantly overrepresented in this category nationwide, according to the report, making up 45 per cent of drowning deaths while only being 9 per cent of the population.
Gerrard said more people were spending more time in the water gathering kai through spearfishing and diving and the trends suggested they were taking more risk.
“When you look at some of the rock fishing incidents, the weather would indicate that you never should have been in that environment,” Gerrard said.
“The hypothesis is ‘why would you go out on a day like that?’
“Maybe there is this other driver, therefore your risk profile has dramatically changed and you are prepared to take a greater risk purely because you need to put food on the table.”
He said their next step was to identify regional-specific water safety trends, then to educate, to prevent more families from having to farewell a loved one.
‘He didn’t usually go really deep’
Tipuna Jones was freediving for kai off a boat near Blacks Reef on the coast of Mahia Peninsula with his brother-in-law and a friend in November last year when he failed to surface.
He was found dead by Surf Life Saving NZ after an extensive search over a day and a bit, which included Coastguard and helicopter resources.
His partner Juliana Hohipa said Jones would often go out diving to gather kai for his whānau and he was experienced with freediving, but she still didn’t know the full circumstances around his death and whether he was diving outside of his comfort zone or taking any risks.
“He was a freediver, so he didn’t have any training or anything, but he learnt growing up,” Hohipa said.
“He didn’t usually go really deep, he kind of went around the reefs.”
She said people needed to be aware of what the ocean can do.
“You might think you are confident in the water or you are a really good diver because you have been diving for a long time but we have actually got no control over what happens when you are in there,” she said.
“Also make sure you have got all your proper gear with you. He [Jones] didn’t take his dive floaty out with him, something that remains above the water so the person in the boat knows where you are in the water, he forgot it.”
She said his whānau were all grateful that they could get his body back, as other whānau were not always so lucky.
“Once they are gone, sometimes they don’t return and that can cause a lot more pain.”
She said she wanted to see more ocean search and rescue resources located closer to the North Island’s east coast and better communication with whānau during searches.
University of Otago PhD student Ben Hanara, of Ngāti Kahungunu, told RNZ in December that kai gathering was of huge importance to Māori, helping them to connect to their environment, atua, wellbeing and understanding of the world.
“At the same time, it [the ocean] can be a very dangerous place to connect with if you don’t go in with the right mindset, with the right tikanga and safety measures,” Hanara said.
He said people wanted to have the mana of being able to provide for their whānau and telling people not to go fishing and diving in dangerous conditions risked stepping on that, but not returning home was the bigger risk.
“Your whānau would rather have you there without that kaimoana, than you not there, and also not the kaimoana.”
Over the 10 years from 2012 to 2022, 81 per cent of drowning deaths were male. Māori had the highest number of drowning fatalities of any ethnicity, more than NZ European, in Hawke’s Bay.
The most common places where drownings happened in Hawke’s Bay were the beach (35 per cent), followed by offshore (19 per cent), then rivers (16 per cent) and tidal water (9 per cent).
Besides two underwater activity-related drownings in Hawke’s Bay in 2022, two people died in watercraft incidents, one person died while swimming and one person died after falling into the water when not otherwise planning to swim, according to the report.
Senior Hawke’s Bay coast guard Henry van Tuel said Hawke’s Bay Coastguard and local Surf Life Saving groups, local commercial contacts and the closest available rescue helicopter participate in Hawke’s Bay rescues and searches.
Gisborne Coastguard is also used if the search is around northern Hawke’s Bay.
Police are always the lead agency.
Van Tuel said Coastguards were not just rescuers, they could also educate people.
“If people want Coastguard to come down and just talk about general boating safety and stuff like that, just get a hold of our duty phone 06 834-1345 and we will come down and give a talk to people.”
