• Betero Biriauea drowned while kayak fishing without a lifejacket or means to call for help.
• Coroner Rachael Schmidt-McCleave emphasised the importance of wearing lifejackets for all water users.
• Maritime New Zealand recommended filing trip reports for safety.

On a November afternoon two years ago, Betero Biriauea paddled out into choppy water to go fishing in his kayak.

It was something the 25-year-old competent swimmer who was familiar with the sea did regularly.

A stiff south-westerly wind of about 15-20 knots was blowing offshore as Biriauea left around 3pm with two rods but no lifejacket.

As he paddled out into the Firth of Thames on the sleek, sit-on-top kayak, it was the last time he was seen alive.

The Kiribati-born marine engineer’s body was found seven days later washed up on a beach about 60km north of where he had launched his kayak.

Coroner Rachael Schmidt-McCleave said there was little doubt that had Biriauea been wearing a lifejacket and had a reliable means to call for help, he may not have died.

“It is an oft-repeated, but often ignored, message that lifejackets are imperative to survival in the water.”

She said in her just-released findings that the degree of possible complacency in this case was dangerous for all recreational water users, no matter their level of experience.

Members of the Papakura Coastguard who helped in the November 2022 search for missing kayaker Betero Biriauea.

On the afternoon of November 5, 2022, Biriauea picked up his father and girlfriend and drove to Whakatīwai in the Firth of Thames near Kaiaua Beach.

He was said to often go there from his home in Pukekohe, as he liked fishing around the nearby mussel farm.

His partner, Selepa Iliesa, would sometimes go with him and wait in the car for his return before dark.

On this occasion, neither she nor Biriauea’s father saw him put on the lifejacket he usually had with him in the kayak.

They became concerned when he failed to return at dusk and reported him missing around 9pm.

The police Eagle helicopter helped with the initial search as the family searched in a boat.

The next day a fisherman found his kayak in the water off the Orere boat ramp, about 17km north of Whakatīwai. The kayak was upright with two fishing rods in it, but there was no sign of Biriauea, who worked for Bluebridge.

An extensive police search continued throughout the following week, with the help of Coastguard NZ, Land Search and Rescue, plus searchers in aircraft.

Iliesa then found the rubbish bags filled with sand and rocks, which Biriauea used as an anchor, near Tapapakanga Regional Park.

On November 12, 2022, around 6am, a dog walker at Te Puru Park found a body, later confirmed to be Biriauea, washed up in a fenced-off bird area at the beach.

Te Puru Park is south of Beachlands, about 60km north of Whakatīwai.

Schmidt-McCleave said that based on survival times in water of 18C she believed that Biriauea died sometime between November 5-6 and his body then drifted to Te Puru Park, just south of Beachlands.

A post-mortem examination determined he had drowned.

A Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) report provided to the coroner found that the kayak was suitable for what Biriauea was doing and that he had shared his intended fishing plan, including an estimated return time, with his family before departing.

However, he did not have his mobile phone, a GPS beacon or other form of communication with him.

MNZ said although it was not known when Biriauea came off his kayak, it was reasonable to assume he had been in the water a long time without a lifejacket or wetsuit.

Schmidt-McCleave found that, at some point, Biriauea became separated from his kayak and was unable to get himself back on board.

Without the means to call for help, and being inadequately dressed for the conditions, he likely succumbed to the effects of immersion in cold water and drowned.

Among a list of recommendations, Schmidt-McCleave referred to MNZ’s Boating Safety Code which recommended recreational boaties wear a proper-fitting lifejacket.

The recommendation was based on statistics which showed that more than two-thirds of boating fatalities may have been prevented if lifejackets were worn.

MNZ also encouraged all recreational boaties to file a trip report with Coastguard NZ, which could be done from a mobile phone on the Coastguard NZ app or *500.

Schmidt-McCleave also recommended that kayakers and kayak fishers consider taking part in a KayakSafe workshop to learn skills such as getting back on to or into a kayak after falling out.

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.