Angler's body defies recovery efforts

The grieving family and friends of a fisherman swept off rocks at Muriwai have questioned police efforts to recover the body.

Wen Hai Wu was swept from Flat Rock on Sunday night.

Mr Wu, 37, was caught by a wave as he and three friends made their way off the popular fishing rock when the conditions became too rough.

Friends and family have kept a vigil at the site and on Tuesday, a friend who was fishing with Mr Wu, alerted police after spotting his body buried in sand at low tide.

The friend, Alex, said the police arrived about 45 minutes later.

By the time they had organised a specialist recovery team the tide was coming back in.

Alex said he was grateful for the work of police and other agencies, including surf lifesaving, but questioned whether there was enough co-ordination between the services after watching the attempts to recover his friend's body.

Alex was now concerned the body would be fully covered by sand and lost forever.

Sergeant Malcolm Wallace said police saw the body near a blowhole in the rock but the tide was coming in and the conditions were dangerous.

"We called in the surf lifesaving crew because they have all the gear to get in there, and Eagle Helicopter was called in," he said. "Police and surf lifesavers tried to recover the body but were unsuccessful, it was too dangerous."

Mr Wallace said the community constable saw the body again around 4am yesterday and went back to the scene with a police search and rescue team and surf lifesavers.

"They went to the same area and found the body had gone.

"They searched and saw it partially submerged near the scene but once again the conditions, even at low tide, are still treacherous and they were unsuccessful at retrieving it. We called in Westpac [Rescue Helicopter] and it was unable to be located again."

Police were carrying out another search last night and were optimistic of recovering Mr Wu's body.

Mr Wallace said police knew how important it was to the family, but the recovery could put other lives in danger.

Mr Wallace said police might talk to local authorities about banning fishing from the rock because of the danger.

He said another fisherman suffered a badly broken leg in an accident at the same spot yesterday.

"It's starting to get to the stage ... of seeing if we can get the council or whoever to put up signs there saying it's too dangerous to fish here, or fish here at your own risk."

Mr Wallace also suggested fishermen on the rocks wear lifejackets.

"You may look pretty silly fishing [on the rocks] with a lifejacket on but at the end of the day it might save your life."