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Adrift Colombian mariner says he ate seagulls to survive as his friends died

A Colombian mariner has been rescued after surviving for two months stranded in the Pacific in a ...
Newstalk
Newstalk

14.13 5 May 2016


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Adrift Colombian mariner says...

Adrift Colombian mariner says he ate seagulls to survive as his friends died

Newstalk
Newstalk

14.13 5 May 2016


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A Colombian mariner has been rescued after surviving for two months stranded in the Pacific in a 23ft boat, the US Coast Guard has said.

The 29-year-old man said he had survived by eating fish and seagulls after his skiff became disabled in a little-travelled area of the ocean, but said his three companions died.

A merchant ship that rescued the man more than 2,000 miles southeast of Hawaii notified the Coast Guard.

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The man was then picked up by a Coast Guard boat and brought to Honolulu on Wednesday, where he was reportedly in a good condition.

Lieutenant Commander John MacKinnon, Joint Rescue Coordination Centre chief with the Coast Guard 14th District, said: "This mariner had great fortitude and is very fortunate the crew of the Nikkei Verde happened upon him as the area he was in is not heavily trafficked".

The bodies of the three other men were not on board the skiff when it was located.

The survivor surrendered their passports to officials when he was rescued.

No other details on their deaths have been released.

The survivor, who has not been identified, said the four had set out from Colombia more than two months earlier, but their engine failed and they were left adrift.


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