Three people spent over 24 hours in the water before the Coast Guard was able to find them — pulling off adramatic rescuebefore it was too late.
When officials rescued the boaters from the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coastline on Sunday, two of the individuals were “fending off sharks,” the U.S. Coast Guard 8th District Heartland said in anews release.
“All three men had been fending off hypothermia,” the U.S. Coast Guard Station Venicewrotein a separate statement on social media, adding that “time was running out.”
“As the helicopter hoisted one man out of the ocean, the crew of Venice hauled the other two men out of the water,” they wrote.
“They had multiple lacerations on their hand, almost down to the bone, indicative of a shark bite and serrated edges indicative of a shark’s tooth puncturing their hands,” Lt. Katy Caraway, U.S. Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans co-pilot, toldToday.
Coast Guard rescuers boaters who were fending off sharks.U.S. Coast Guard Heartland
All three of the boaters were taken to local hospital and listed as being in stable condition, according to the outlet.
The three men, who have not been publicly identified, were reported missing on Saturday, after they failed to come home from a fishing trip, according to CBS News.
“A family member called in reporting that her husband and two associates had not returned to shore at their agreed time,” the U.S. Coast Guard Station Venice wrote in a statement.
The U.S. Coast Guard 8th District Heartland said that when the vessel sank, the boaters were stranded without communication devices.
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The Coast Guard began its search in an area “spanning 1,250 square miles, slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island,” according to the U.S. Coast Guard 8th District Heartland.
During that initial search, Coast Guard officials were “redirected to an area offshore where a call had been tracked” and discovered “that the mariners had lost their boat to the sea, and were drifting in the water.”
“Overall, the boaters spent more than 24 hours in the water after their boat sank at approximately 10 a.m. Saturday morning,” wrote the U.S. Coast Guard 8th District Heartland, adding that they were “rescued just in the nick of time.”
According toToday, the two fisherman who were fending off sharks were found clinging to a cooler, while the third boater was found about a half mile away.
“If the family member had not notified the Coast Guard, and if these three boaters were not wearing life jackets, this could’ve been a completely different outcome,” Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Keefe, a Coast Guard search and rescue mission coordinator in New Orleans, said according to CBS News.
source: people.com
