Myanmar Men Lost At Sea Survive For 25 Days On Rain Water and Bird Vomit

SYDNEY (AFP) – Two men who spent 25 days lost at sea in a giant icebox survived their extraordinary ordeal thanks to rainwater from tropical storms and fish spat out by passing birds, a report said Wednesday.

The men, who were rescued by helicopter on Saturday, are still being interviewed by Australian immigration officials, who are hoping to clarify how they came to be drifting in shark-infested waters off the country's northern coast.

The pair told The Sydney Morning Herald they drank only rainwater and ate small fish regurgitated by seabirds after their Thai fishing boat broke up, possibly in Indonesian waters, in huge waves on December 23.

"For 10 days, nothing to eat," one of the men told the paper through an interpreter.

"Then two big seabirds came and vomited some small fish -- about six or seven little fish, and that's all."

The pair, who are aged 22 and 24 and thought to be from Myanmar, said that 18 of their crewmates from Thailand and Myanmar were lost when the 10-metre wooden fishing boat went down.

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What an amazing story. Two men floating in a giant cooler for 25 days in shark infested waters.

I sort of agree with the officials that the likelihood of the small vessel staying salt water and grime free long enough to capture enough clean rain water for them to live on sounds improbable, but according to the rescue crews the men really were in poor shape when found.

I will wager that after 10 straight days with no food they were probably happy to have that seagull vomit on them. As disgusting as it sounds to eat the regurgitated fish from a sea scavenger's stomach, at the end of the day it is all about survival.

This may turn out to be some sort of hoax, but for now it stands as quite an incredible tale.

Is bird vomit really that abundant? I mean, do they actually do it that much? I think bird crap got mistranslated to vomit.

reply to post by Yarcofin




Yes...the whole thing sounds a bit "fishy" if you ask me





All I can say is I very much admire these men for their strong will to live on. Sounds like a bad episode of Fear Factor.








[edit on 1/22/09 by BlackOps719]