An aerial search continues today in rough sea conditions for a kayaker believed to have been swept out to the sea off Blaketown on Saturday evening.

Greymouth police said this morning the reported missing person may now be deceased.

However, they had not yet established a link between the kayak found washed up on Blaketown Beach at 7.30pm on Saturday evening, and a report from a member of the public about 6pm of someone swept out to sea.

Police are today undertaking an expanded official search both north and south of Greymouth.

A local helicopter took to the air about 9am to survey the coast from as far north as Charleston and down to Ross, after the initial search focused around Greymouth.

Shortly after midday, West Coast Search and Rescue manager, senior sergeant Mark Kirkwood, said the police search was continuing for the person “swept out to sea”.

“The search resumed this morning, where police, with the assistance of Precision Helicopters, conducted aerial searches of the shoreline between Ross and Charleston. At this stage, the person has not yet been located, with rough sea conditions and white caps making the search difficult,” Mr Kirkwood said.

“Police continue to make inquiries to identify the person swept out to sea, and if the kayak is linked to the person.”

The person seen in the water on Saturday evening was “suspected to be deceased,” senior sergeant Brent Cook said.

“We believe we know who it is.”

The Greymouth Star understands the victim is a local man in his 30s.

A raft of local emergency services including Police, Search and Rescue, Kotuku Surf Lifesaving, the Greymouth and Cobden volunteer fire brigades and the West Coast Rescue Helicopter spent several hours combing the coastline off Greymouth on Saturday night.

“We searched the area until dark after a walker on the beach in Blaketown called about someone in the water,” Greymouth chief fire officer Lee Swinburn said today.

The initial search on Saturday evening ranged northward from Blaketown towards Point Elizabeth.

Earlier, Mr Kirkwood said the Emily B Drifter — a specially designed floating device with GPS trackers — was also deployed yesterday.

“The drifter replicates where a person in the ocean may be.”

The Emily B Drifter Project was launched following the tragic loss of nine-year-old Christchurch girl Emily Branje who was swept out to sea at the Hokitika River mouth in 2019 while watching her grandfather whitebaiting.

Mr Kirkwood today renewed a call for anyone who recognised the kayak “or has not heard from somebody who was kayaking” off Greymouth on Saturday to contact police via 105.

-Greymouth Star