Boater rescued from waters off Blue Point

A man clinging to a clam boat in the waters off Blue Point was pulled to safety Monday afternoon, Suffolk County police said.

A 911 call came in at 2:45 p.m. reporting that a man in the water was holding onto his boat and calling for help about one-quarter of a mile off Blue Point Avenue, police said.

"We found him in the water, basically with early signs of hypothermia. He really couldn't talk and couldn't move," Sgt. Joseph Hauswirth of the Marine Bureau said.

Officers Michael Axelson, Frankie Sierra and Kevin Comiskey aboard the vessel Marine Mike pulled Thomas Herrschaft, 57, of Mastic Beach, onto their boat and took him to the dock at the tip of Blue Point Avenue, where he was put in an ambulance and taken to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Center in East Patchogue, police said.

Officers Daniel Smith, Keith Magliola and Robert Daniels, aboard the vessel Marine Kilo, towed the 24-foot clam boat to the Corey Creek Marina in Blue Point, police said.