Opihi picker swept into sea identified
A man who died after he was swept into the ocean while picking opihi Sunday was identified as 55-year-old Arthur Uddipa of Napili, police said.
He had been picking opihi on the shoreline with a relative near Punalau Beach when a wave knocked him off the rocks, a fire official said. The relative, a 28-year-old man, tried to pull Uddipa back up onto the rocks but couldn’t and went to call for help, the official said.
Emergency crews, responding to the 11:51 a.m. call, recovered Uddipa’s body after seeing him floating unresponsive in the water about 150 feet from shore and about a half-mile west of Punalau Beach, commonly known as Windmills Beach.