When Jessica Whyte was woken to the news that her son had been found floating in the sea, it felt like her heart went still.

She didn't feel it beat again until she saw the 18-month-old at the camp ground reception.

He was purple, cold and looked smaller than usual.

But he was alive.

A local fisherman, Gus Hutt, had found her son, Malachi, floating in the sea on October 26.

The toddler was so still and lifeless, Gus almost mistook him for a doll.

"His face looked like porcelain with his short hair wetted down," Gus recalled to the Whakatane Beacon, "but then he let out a little squeak and I thought, 'oh God, this is a baby and it's alive'."

"He was floating at a steady pace with a rip in the water. If I hadn't been there, or if I had just been a minute later I wouldn't have seen him," Gus says.

"He was bloody lucky, but he just wasn't meant to go; it wasn't his time."

Adding to the fortune was Gus' chance choice of fishing location 100m away from his usual spot but right where Malachi drifted past.

Usually, Gus heads straight out from the camp to fish from the beach, but on that Friday he decided to walk 100 metres to the left, towards Tauranga.

After returning to check his lines at 7.15am, he saw the seemingly lifeless baby floating in the water.

Gus's wife Sue ran to the parents' tent after the holiday camp managers said they were the only ones staying with a baby.

"She ran to the tent and just shook it and asked, 'where's your baby – we just pulled one from the sea' and the mother just screamed," Gus says.

Emergency services arrived with the Matata Volunteer Fire Brigade treating the boy for 15 minutes before an ambulance arrived to take him to Whakatāne Hospital.

Malachi had slipped out of his parent's tent at Murphy's Holiday Camp around 7am on the Friday morning and ran into the ocean.

Gus later traced Malachi's footsteps down to the water, about 15 metres away from where he'd been fishing.

The toddler usually slept past 8am, Jessica, from Matamata says, but the sound of the waves might have woken him.

Just the day before he had kept trying to run into the sea, stopped by his parents.

The camp manager woke Whyte at 7.30am to tell her the news, but it didn't register at first. It felt like a sick joke.

"She was like 'do you guys have a young child?' Then she said he's been found in the water.

"It was horrible in between hearing that and seeing him. I don't think my heart [beat] from hearing that to seeing him. I don't think my heart worked.

"It was scary but he was breathing, he was alive.

"Oh God, it was amazing seeing him. I gave him a big hug."

Malachi kept trying to fall asleep and Jessica kept him awake until emergency services arrived.

Jessica tearfully thanked Gus, who had few tears in his eyes, too, she says. She can't thank him enough and hopes to visit him again.

Malachi is still the same playful toddler and he isn't scared of the water. He still loves showers, Jessica says.

"He's himself. Maybe he'll be more aware of water, not run into beaches. But he's definitely himself."

Jessica knows some people will judge her parenting after hearing her son escaped the tent.

But she wants to warn other parents ahead of summer.

"Zip your tents up. And zip them up nice and high if you've got a child that can reach. Put them on a padlock.

"We wouldn't let him run into the water by his own. People can have those [judgmental] thoughts. They can think we're a bad parent.

"I'm more concerned about people zipping up their tents."

-Stuff.