A 52-year-old man has died after a boat capsized at a river mouth on the Sunshine Coast.
Police are investigating after the incident at the notorious entrance to the Mooloolaba Harbour.
“Around 5.20am, police were called to reports a commercial boat had overturned with five people on board,” a police spokesperson told Sunshine Coast News.
“The boat has washed up on Mooloolaba Beach.
“Three people are uninjured, one person has been transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and a 52-year-old man has died.
“Investigations are ongoing.”
Media reports have named the victim as Robert Smith, the captain of Smithy’s Fishing Charters.
A Coast Guard volunteer told SCN that a mayday call was received at 5.19am.
He said the incident appeared to have occurred “right on the bar” and that conditions were “as usual, not very good”.
“There’s been some heavy swells and, at low tide, they break across that bar. It looks like a big wave has caught this boat unawares,” he said.
He said the commercial boat was “experienced” and “had crossed the bar many times”.
He said the vessel washed ashore near Cheese Wedge Park at Uranga Esplanade.
A low tide of 0.27m was at 4.17am.
Sunshine Coast chief lifeguard Trent Robinson was among the first on the scene about 5.30am, when he met some of the people who had made it to shore.
He told SCN that lifesavers attempted a search of the beached boat “because there were concerns the skipper of the boat was still in the hull”.
“Unfortunately, the skipper was found by a lifesaver on a jet ski about 200 metres offshore,” he said.
Mr Robinson said there were some rough conditions.
“It was low tide, it was about a 1.5m swell, but because we had a bit of an northerly blowing up as well, it was quite messy at the river mouth and at low tide there were waves breaking across the river mouth,” he said.
Sunshine Coast District Chief Inspector Jason Overland commented on the incident.
“It’s a commercial fishing boat, which would indicate that they were paying customers going out for a fishing charter,” he said.
“The occupants of the vessel were thrown into the water. Four of those occupants made it to shore and unfortunately one of those occupants, the driver of the vessel, was later located deceased,” he said.
“The waves are quite treacherous at that location on the bar.”
He confirmed that people on the beach initially suspected the skipper was within the vessel that had washed ashore.
“There were fears that the captain was entrapped in the upturned boat and police made every effort they possibly could to get in there and make a determination one way or the other,” he said. Heavy machinery was called in to help.
“As it turns out, he wasn’t entrapped in the boat.”
He said it appeared three people made it to shore unassisted before a fourth person also reached the beach “assisted with an Esky lid or something like that”.
He said the 52-year-old’s death would be felt by many.
“It’s my understanding that the captain of the vessel was a well-known charter boat operator and was taking people out on fishing tours and has been doing so for some time. So, it’s a loss to the community.”
He said an investigation was underway.
“Crossing any bar is treacherous at any time and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority investigation will obviously investigate what part that played in the tragedy.”
A Queensland Ambulance Spokesperson said they were informed by police about the incident and promptly attended the scene.
“We assessed three stable patients, who had made their way to land, and we transported one stable male patient with chest pain, in his 60s, to Sunshine Coast University Hospital. One person was assessed on the scene in a life-threatening condition,” they said.
