BBC : A fisherman who had been missing for nearly two weeks has been found alive floating in a life raft about 70 miles (110km) off the west coast of the US.
Good Samaritans found the fisherman on Thursday, the US Coast Guard Pacific Northwest said in a statement one day after they had suspended their search. The Canadian rescuers who found him say he caught and ate a salmon to survive.
The man, who was not identified, had left Gray Harbour in Washington state on October 12 Evening, a 43-foot ship.
Officials did not name the rescuers or how they found him, but a TV station in Seattle identified them as Ryan Planes and his uncle John from Sooke, a town on Vancouver island in British Columbia. “I saw what looked like a life raft in the distance and ran inside and put the binoculars on him and then he shot off a flare,” Ryan told the network.
“We pulled him on board. He gave me a big hug and it was emotional,” John said.
He added that the man told him that he had been alone on the raft for 13 days, and that he caught a salmon after running out of food.
“We made him breakfast. He drank three bottles of water,” he said. “He was pretty hungry, poor guy.”
The man appears to be in stable condition, officials said, and was transported back to shore by the Canadian Coast Guard and another Canadian rescue agency.
