An American fisherman missing for nearly two weeks was spotted floating in a raft off Vancouver Island about 70 miles from the Washington coast, officials said.
The man was rescued by boaters Thursday northwest of Cape Flattery, the U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Northwest posted on Twitter, now rebranded as X.
#BreakingNews Photo of the life raft as the good Samaritan vessel approached it this morning. pic.twitter.com/Nf6ChXjCWO
— USCGPacificNorthwest (@USCGPacificNW) October 26, 2023
He was last seen Oct. 12 leaving Westport, Washington, with another fisherman in a 43-foot wooden-hull boat, McClatchy News previously reported.
They were supposed to return Oct. 15 from fishing but they never did, officials said. The other man had not been found by Friday.
Two people from Sooke, British Columbia, came across the man floating on a life raft, KING-TV reported.
They pulled him onto their boat, and the fisherman told them he caught and ate a salmon to survive after he ran out of food and water, the news outlet reported.
It’s not clear how long he was on the raft alone or why he ended up separated from the other fisherman.
The U.S. Coast Guard did not immediately respond to a request for more information Friday.
A cellphone signal was pinged from one of the men’s phones Oct. 12, when they were last heard from.
A woman then reported her father missing, prompting search efforts Oct. 22, U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier told McClatchy News on Wednesday.
Rescuers searched for the missing boat and men, covering over 14,000 square miles in eight hours, officials said.
Strohmaier said the search included areas off the southwest coast of Vancouver Island, south to Newport, Oregon.
Rescuers also scanned the ocean from aircrafts “in an east to west area of about 100-miles offshore of the Oregon, Washington, and SW Vancouver Island coast,” he said.