A maritime Search and Rescue (SAR) operation was launched by the Rescue Co-ordination Centre New Zealand following a mayday call on March 15.
The caller stated his vessel - the 17m Pleasant Fisher - was on fire and three adults and a child were adrift in a lifeboat, 3km from the Waitaki River mouth.
The call was received just before 6pm and called off at 9.25pm as a hoax.
An Official Information Act request by the Otago Daily Times reveals the operating costs resulting from the hoax call cost $24,000 excluding GST, and included two helicopters and a Coastguard vessel.
In addition, Rescue Co-ordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) staff, New Zealand's Maritime Distress and Safety Radio Service, police communications centre, Oamaru police and local volunteers were involved in the operation.
A request for a transcript of the hoax mayday call was declined because a police investigation was under way.
As part of that investigation, reparation might be sought from the caller, a Maritime New Zealand spokeswoman said.
Since the establishment of the RCCNZ in July 2004, there had been 24 incidents relating to hoax calls, with only two calls (in 2009 and 2010) resulting in a SAR operation involving vessels, aircraft and rescue personnel.
The centre was obliged to treat all distress calls as genuine.
