Tweet Facebook Mail The president of a New Zealand fishing club says he's "broken" after the bodies of three missing fishermen were found on the shore of Māhia in Hawke's Bay. Police said on Wednesday morning that while formal identification was under way, the bodies were thought to be of the trio who were reported missing on Monday. Stuff understands one of the missing fishermen is Elwood Higgins.
Elwood Higgins, thought to be one of the three fishermen who were reported missing on Monday. (Supplied/Stuff) Gisborne Tatapouri Sports Fishing Club president Roger Faber told Stuff he was about to go live for an interview on TV on Wednesday morning when he was informed the bodies had been found. "I was just broken, for whānau, for the friends, for the whole community.
These guys are three local guys that are involved in the community, sporting groups, hunting groups, clubs - they're part of our club." It had been a whirlwind wait since the men went missing on Monday, he said. Two of the men were spotted alive in the water by a container ship on Tuesday afternoon, which had raised hopes.
"That was just a miracle and we thought heck this is awesome, hopefully they can find the third one," he said. "And then just going through the afternoon and slowly seeing things get worse as the African Tiger logging ship drifted away from them and lost them again and then the weather got worse. "[The] Napier Coast Guard got two-thirds of the way down to them and had to turn back because of t.