Survivors rescued from cooler after five days at sea
Two Mexican fishermen were found alive and rescued on Wednesday after spending five days adrift in the Pacific Ocean, according to the Mexican navy. The men, aged 53 and 32, were discovered floating about 150 miles off the coast of Chiapas, a southern state bordering Guatemala, and were brought to safety by a naval ocean patrol vessel.
The fishermen had last communicated with their fishing cooperative on Aug. 14, and when they failed to make contact, cooperative staff issued a distress call. The Mexican navy responded by deploying both surface and air units to search for the men, who had set out aboard a vessel named the Camaronera.
Photos released by Mexico's Secretariat of the Navy show the two men sitting inside a blue cooler, which bobb on the ocean swells as rescuers approached. Video of the rescue depicts the men in choppy conditions before they were hoisted aboard the patrol vessel and given medical evaluations.
According to the navy, the men were subsequently airlifted by helicopter to port, where they received additional medical attention. Images from shore show one of the men on a stretcher and later in a wheelchair, while the other was also transported as a precaution. After their examination, the men were reunited with their families.
In a statement, the Mexican navy said the rescue underscores its “commitment to the public to safeguard human life at sea.”
The fishermen's survival—and the success of the operation—was attributed by officials to the collective response from the cooperative’s distress call to the navy’s rapid deployment of assets.