A 46-year-old Montana man died today after he jumped into the ocean to save his 15-year-old daughter after she was washed away by a large wave, Maui firefighters said.

The girl was swept away at about 12:30 p.m. while standing near the water at the Olivine Pools in Kahakuloa, said Maui Fire Department spokesman Edward Taomoto.

The man, a visitor from Whitefish, Mont., jumped into the ocean and got his daughter back to a rocky cliff where other people used towels to pull the girl up the ledge.

When the people on shore looked back to the man, he was floating face down.

Firefighters in a helicopter and lifeguards on rescue watercraft arrived at 1 p.m. and plucked the man from the water, about 40 feet from the rocky shoreline. He was taken by helicopter to Kahekili Highway where firefighters began CPR, but he died at the scene.

It was the 16th ocean-related death on Maui this year.