Water rescue saves man after 90 minute ordeal

The Port of Tauranga. Photo/file

The man who fell from a boat in Tauranga Harbour and was the subject of a water rescue was unable to even climb onto a ladder when help arrived.

The man sparked an emergency services call out when he fell from a boat at the Sulphur Point Sandford's wharf about 8.30pm yesterday.

Tauranga fire brigade acting station officer Nigel Liddicoat said one of the man's colleagues saw him fall about 3.5 metres off the boat he had been working on and into the sea.

"They threw a buoyancy ring around him but they couldn't get him out."

Mr Liddicoat said one of the men's colleagues jumped in after him and helped keep him afloat on the ring. The man was believed to have been in the water for about an hour and a half.

"He wasn't able to climb the ladder. Whether he'd been treading water for too long, or taken on too much water ... He certainly wasn't able to get himself out of the water," Mr Liddicoat said.

"One of the firefighters jumped in and got the harness around him and pulled him up and into a vessel. He was put on a stretcher and taken to hospital in an ambulance."

Mr Liddicoat said the man had bruising, which could have been sustained in the fall, but there were no other obvious injuries.

No one from Tauranga Hospital could be reached this morning to establish the man's condition.