Three people have been rescued after their fishing boat struck rocks in the early hours of this morning in the Bay of Islands.
The Coastguard was alerted just before 4am by the 23-tonne fishing vessel's distress call from Whale Bay and three people were found on the rocks under a cliff in Howe Bay about 5.20am, a spokesperson said.
There were shaken and mildly hypothermic and were taken to Kerikeri Hospital.
The vessel, carrying 1600 litres of diesel, was 90 per cent under water, the spokesperson said.
Northland Regional Council Harbourmaster Jim Lyall said a team would try to recover the wreckage today, and it was likely most of the diesel had already seeped out.
