Fishermen missing for 5 days found alive floating on cooler in Pacific

Two fishermen who used a cooler to survive at sea for days were found alive and rescued on Wednesday, the Mexican navy said. 

The fishermen, 53 and 32, last communicated with their fishing cooperative on August 14. At the time, they were aboard a ship called the Camaronera. The staff of the cooperative sent out a distress call when the men were not heard from. 

The Mexican navy responded to the distress call by deploying surface and air assets. The wide range of the search allowed rescuers to locate the men floating in the Pacific Ocean about 150 miles off the coast of Chiapas, a southern Mexican state that borders Guatemala. 

Photos shared by Mexico’s Secretariat of the Navy show the two men sitting inside a blue cooler. Video shows the container bobbing on the ocean waves as rescuers approach it in a navy ocean patrol vessel. 

The navy said that once the fishermen were rescued, they underwent medical evaluations. They were then airlifted to port and received further medical attention. One of the photos shared by the Secretariat of the Navy shows one fisherman on a stretcher. In a second image taken on land, that fisherman is in a wheelchair, while the other is being rolled on a stretcher. More information about the men’s condition was not shared. 

The fishermen were reunited with their families after the medical examination, the Navy said. 

Mexico’s navy said the rescue shows its “commitment to the public to safeguard human life at sea,” and encouraged anyone experiencing a maritime emergency to seek aid from the Secretariat of the Navy.