WARWICK SMITH/Stuff
A Police National Dive Squad team searching the Manawatū River, near the end of Ruahine Street, for missing fisherman Toru Misokawa on Friday.
Divers have taken to the Manawatū River in efforts to locate a fisherman who has been missing for almost a week.
Toru Mizokawa was believed to be fly-fishing along the Aokautere side of the Manawatū River, off Pinfold Rd, in Palmerston North on Saturday.
The 49-year-old man was reported missing on Monday by work colleagues when he didn’t show up to his job in Fonterra’s research division.
Manawatū Search and Rescue officer in charge Andrew Brooke said it looked like Mizokawa had fallen in the water while fishing.
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Toru Mizokawa, 49, has been missing since Saturday.
A team of divers from the Police National Dive Squad in Wellington were in the river on Friday, but the fast current made the search more complicated.
“The murkiness doesn’t matter because they are used to searching blind, they use their hands,” Brooke said. “The river flow is what matters.”
They were unable to search in the depths of the river, because the fast current made it dangerous.
He said the weather was expected to get worse over the weekend, but a team of kayakers would continue to search the river.
WARWICK SMITH/Stuff
Divers were unable to search in the depths of the river because the fast current made it too dangerous.
Dozens of people had been searching for Mizokawa since Monday afternoon, with kayakers, Palmerston North and Horowhenua Search and Rescue volunteers, inflatable lifeboats from Surf Life Saving, jet boats, a drone from Fire and Emergency New Zealand and a helicopter from Rangitīkei Helicopters involved.
After Stuff reported Mizokawa’s disappearance on Tuesday, about six witnesses had come forward with sightings of the avid fisherman on Saturday and on previous occasions.
Mizokawa had been living in Palmerston North and working at Fonterra for about a year and his wife remained in Japan, Brooke said.
WARWICK SMITH/Stuff
Dozens of people have been searching the river for Mizokawa since Monday afternoon.
Fonterra director of category, strategy and innovation Mark Piper said he had known Mizokawa, a highly-valued member of the Fonterra Research and Development team in Palmerston North, for more than 16 years.
“We’re all deeply concerned about Mizokawa san and are assisting police with their search.”
Police urged anyone who may have seen Mizokawa on Saturday to contact police on 105 quoting the file number 210809/7210.
WARWICK SMITH/Stuff
Divers using inflatable lifeboats from Surf Life Saving in the search.
This was the first big search in the Manawatū River since Mike Toon was swept away trying to save his daughter in 2016, and it was in the same section of river.
Toon’s daughter went to the edge of the river after a dog jumped in and the bank gave way. Toon saved his daughter, and the dog made it to the banks, but he drowned.
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