The Bay of Plenty regional harbourmaster says the Kaituna River's conditions were "very bad" at the time of the fatal incident.

Te Puke man Joe Dumangon died when a small boat he and another person were on capsized on Saturday morning.

Coast Guard, Ambulance, Fire and Emergency NZ, and Police responded to the incident at 11.45am..

'One person made it to shore and was taken to hospital in a serious condition,” says a police spokesperson.

Police confirm that the second person was pulled from the water by rescuers and sadly died a short time later.

New Zealand Coastguard assisted in the search and rescue from Maketu after being alerted by police.

Bay of Plenty regional harbourmaster Jon Jon Peters says he has reviewed live camera footage from the Kaituna Cut – the Bay of Plenty's most dangerous bar – and the conditions at the time of the incident were 'very bad”.

'The boat was actually flung up into the air and came down, capsized,” Peters says.

He says he understands the two men on board the boat were also not wearing lifejackets.

'This is a really sad incident, our thoughts are with the bereaved family and local community. It highlights the need to always wear lifejackets and check the weather conditions.”

Maketu Coastguard's Shane Beech was one of those called out to the incident, after getting a call from the police saying that a boat had overturned on the Kaituna Cut bar and two people were in the water.

'We navigated the bar, we soon came across the overturned hull, it was roughly about 200 metres offshore in the wave break itself,” Beech says.

'One person was clinging to the hull but we could not sight the second person.”

He says there's probably about a 1.5-metre wave break on the bar at the time, with an outgoing tide.

Beech says the Coastguard vessel could not get too close to the overturned boat because of the wave break and the depth of water 'but we sort of shadowed it in until basically it washed up on shore”.

He says by that point they could see one person was being helped on shore by members of the public, and shortly after more help arrived from the Coastguard, Fire and Emergency New Zealand and police.

'They found the second person on shore, they all helped with first aid and CPR, but unfortunately it was not successful.”

Beech says he wants to emphasise the importance of people wearing lifejackets while crossing bars.

'There were lifejackets there but they were not wearing them unfortunately,” he says.

'We do get quite a few incidents on the bar – boat roll-overs, boats hitting sandbars, that sort of thing. But this is definitely the first fatality for many years.”

Harbourmaster Peters says people need to be aware of the dangers involved with bar crossings, even if they regularly crossed a bar and felt confident doing so.

'Complacency is the biggest killer,” he says.

The Kaituna Cut live bar camera is available to members of the public and can be viewed via the Bay of Plenty Regional Council website.

Meanwhile, the police have thanked members of the public who offered their assistance at the scene.

Anyone who witnessed the event and has not yet spoken to police is asked to contact them via 105.

-Stuff/Scott Yeoman.