The search will continue on Tuesday for the remaining missing person after a charter boat sank in gale-force winds off North Cape on Sunday night.
Ten people were onboard the Enchanter fishing vessel operating out of Mangonui when it activated an emergency beacon after it began sinking at about 8pm on Sunday.
At approximately 2:30am, it was confirmed the vessel had sunk, Maritime New Zealand says.
Five of those on board were rescued, including Enchanter captain Lance Goodhew and senior deckhand Kobe O'Neill, and were taken to Kaitaia Hospital and have since been discharged.
Police said two bodies were found in the water on Monday morning and were recovered by a helicopter while the third body was recovered by a boat assisting with the water search.
A fourth body was found on Monday afternoon by a vessel supporting the search, police said.
Te Awamutu builder Mark Sanders has been confirmed as one of the victims.
The group on the fishing vessel was returning from the Three Kings Islands northwest of Cape Reinga when mammoth seas engulfed the vessel near Murimotu Island.
Maritime New Zealand search and rescue coordinator Nick Burt told AM on Tuesday the police dive squad will join the search for the remaining person.
Burt said the search will resume in "better" conditions with currently 15- to 20-knot northerlies and a 1.5-metre swell.
Joining the police dive squad in the search will be three commercial vessels, two commercial aircraft as well as a Westpac helicopter and the coastguard.
Search and rescue crews are still holding out hope they can find the remaining missing person alive, after over 30 hours since they went missing.
"We are still certainly treating this as a search and rescue operation and until we have explored all possible possibilities, it will remain a search and rescue operation," Burt told AM.
Burt said the conditions the Enchanter fishing vessel experienced on Sunday evening would likely have been similar to the wild weather Auckland saw on Monday.
"We understand they were experiencing 40-50 knot winds prior to receiving the EPIRB (emergency position-indicating radio beacon) alert," Burt said.
"I understand Auckland has had a significant weather event and that has come down from the north so these guys would've been experiencing that, strong wind, rain and likely they could've been experiencing some significant waves."
Burt wouldn't comment on whether the Enchanter should've been out there in the conditions but said there will be multiple investigations and his team's focus is on the search and rescue operation.
