A Florida fishing boat captain faced a harrowing survival ordeal, spending over 18 hours clinging to a cooler in the Gulf of Mexico following Hurricane Milton’s wrath in the region. The US Coast Guard successfully rescued the man on Thursday, October 10, around 1.30pm local time, approximately 30 miles off Longboat Key.

According to a Coast Guard release, the captain was found wearing a life jacket, a vital piece of equipment that likely saved his life. “This man survived in a nightmare scenario for even the most experienced mariner,” said Lt Cmdr Dana Grady, chief of the command centre at Sector St Petersburg. The captain’s identity has not yet been disclosed.

The captain initially contacted the Coast Guard on Monday, October 7, after his fishing boat became disabled about 20 miles off John’s Pass, prompting a rescue operation that brought him and a crew member safely back to Air Station Clearwater. Just two days later, as Hurricane Milton approached land, the captain returned to the boat around 3am to make repairs but failed to check in afterwards.

On October 9, during severe weather conditions caused by the hurricane, which included 6 to 8-foot seas and winds reaching approximately 30 mph, the Coast Guard managed to establish radio contact with the captain. He reported that the boat’s rudder had fouled, leaving him stranded. Coast Guard officials advised him to don his life jacket and stay close to the vessel’s emergency position-indicating radio beacon. Unfortunately, communications were lost shortly thereafter.

After more than 18 hours adrift, the Coast Guard launched a helicopter rescue mission. Dramatic footage captured a crew member being lowered into the turbulent waters to reach the captain, who was clinging to a small cooler. “To understand the severity of the hurricane conditions, we estimate he experienced approximately 75-90 mph winds and 20-25 foot seas for an extended period, including overnight,” Grady noted. His survival was attributed to his life jacket, the emergency locator beacon, and the cooler he held onto.

After the rescue, the captain was shifted to Tampa General Hospital. Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida, around 8.30pm local time on October 9, bringing maximum sustained winds of 120 mph and resulting in at least 16 fatalities so far. 

Representative image
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The U.S. Coast Guard said on Monday (September 17, 2024) that it tracked a group of Russian naval vessels as they crossed into US waters off Alaska in an apparent effort to avoid sea ice, a move that is permitted under international rules and customs.

Crew of a US Coast Guard cutter witnessed the Russian military vessels cross the maritime boundary and venture 30 miles (48 kilometres) inside an area extending beyond US territorial waters known as the US Exclusive Economic Zone.

The Russian vessels consisted of two submarines, a frigate and tug boat, the Coast Guard said in a news release. The encounter took place nearly 60 miles (100 kilometres) northwest of Point Hope.

Rear Adm. Megan Dean said the Coast Guard is actively patrolling maritime borders on the Bering Sea, Bering Strait and Chukchi Sea to “protect US sovereign interests, US fish stocks and promote maritime norms.”

Sydney:

The US Coast Guard and Kiribati police boarded two Chinese fishing boats during a patrol against illegal fishing in the Pacific Islands nation’s vast exclusive economic zone this month but found no issues aboard, a coast guard official said.

The United States is seeking a bigger role for its coast guard in helping remote Pacific Islands nations monitor millions of kilometres of ocean – a rich tuna fishing ground – a move that also boosts surveillance as a rivalry with China over security ties in the region intensifies.

Reuters reported on Friday that Chinese police are working in Kiribati, with uniformed officers involved in community policing and a crime database program.

Kiribati, a nation of 115,000 residents, is considered strategic despite being small, as it is relatively close to Hawaii and controls a 3.5 million square kilometre (1.35 million square mile) exclusive economic zone. It is also host to a Japanese satellite tracking station.

Washington has flagged plans to build an embassy in Kiribati to compete with China, but has not yet done so.

Kiribati police officers were on patrol with the U.S. Coast Guard as “ship riders” for the first time in a almost a decade, between Feb. 11-16, a U.S. Coast Guard Guam spokeswoman said.

“The two People’s Republic of China (PRC) flagged fishing vessels were boarded as part of routine maritime law enforcement activities to ensure compliance with regulations within the Kiribati Exclusive Economic Zone,” the spokeswoman said in an emailed comments.

No concerns were reported during the boardings, she said.

“Both Kiribati officers from the Kiribati Police Maritime Unit and U.S. Coast Guard officers were involved in the boarding operations. This collaboration underscores the partnership between the two nations in upholding maritime law and good governance,” she added.

The Kiribati president’s office and Chinese embassy did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Kiribati’s acting police commissioner, Eeri Aritiera, told Reuters last week that Chinese police on the island work with local police.

China built a large embassy on the main island, Tarawa, after Kiribati switched ties from Taiwan to Beijing in 2019.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)