Photo Courtesy of Dustin Hesse
A call came into the Hawaiʻi Fire Department of a Fisherman in Distress yesterday at 11:03 am Saturday, December 19, 2021.
According to the report the reporting party was picking Opihi with his friend when his friend fell into the water off Kaiwi Point. The reporting Party stated when he jumped in also to help his friend. The victim grabbed his arm and they were both starting to go underwater. The Reporting party let go of the victim to get a breath of air and when he returned underwater could not locate his friend.
Chopper 1 and 2 were dispatched to search and did search grids from the last known location for the missing 47-year-old male. Rescue Boat 7 Sealegs also did a surface swim from the last known location and went North with the current. Later in the day Rescue company was able to use a DLNR boat as well to do a scuba dive from the last know location going north as well.
Coast guard Dolphin Helicopter also arrived to assist in the search. The Coast guard deployed drift markers and assisted with the grid search with additional Coast Units arriving on the scene later. The search continued this morning with no updates as of press time.