00:02Kerry Porter expected to enjoy an early morning fishing trip on January 7 this year.
00:08Instead, he found himself retrieving a boat that had floated away from the dock at Ulverston
00:13and calling triple zero when he couldn't find the owner.
00:17It just didn't feel right because if I'd know if I'd lost my boat,
00:21I would have been so thankful and been at the boat ramp.
00:24The boat had been launched by David Mason at half past five that morning.
00:30When it drifted away from the dock, the 74-year-old tried to swim after it
00:35and was swept into Bass Strait.
00:37Ten minutes later, another fisher called triple zero.
00:40But English wasn't his first language.
00:43The operator couldn't understand him and didn't initiate an emergency response.
00:49At 6.10am, Mr Porter was alerted and helped retrieve the boat.
00:53At 6.41am, Mr Porter called triple zero.
00:58He called again eight minutes later and was told police were on their way.
01:03At 7.12am, when police still hadn't arrived, Mr Porter called triple zero for a third time.
01:10At 7.40am, police were recorded as being on scene.
01:14At the time, I was quite angry about it, to be honest, like, that it took so long for them
01:20to turn up.
01:21In the meantime, two young fishermen had pulled a barely conscious Mr Mason from the water.
01:27They saved me life.
01:28Like, there was, if there had been one missing link in the chain, I wouldn't be here.
01:37A Tasmania police spokesperson said that given the communication challenges with the first triple zero caller,
01:43officers should have arrived much sooner to figure out what was going on.
01:47They said training has now been provided to triple zero operators to avoid similar situations in the future.
01:53So, hey, I'll be there.
01:53Let's do it again.
01:54Let's do it again.
