A Russian man has been rescued in the stormy Sea of Okhotsk after surviving for more than two months in a tiny inflatable boat that lost its engine, but his brother and nephew were dead, officials said on Tuesday.
The prosecutor’s office in the far east of Russia said the man was rescued by a fishing vessel off the Kamchatka Peninsula on Monday.
It did not name the survivor, but Russian news reports identified him as 46-year-old Mikhail Pichugin, who had set out in early August to watch whales in the Sea of Okhotsk together with his 49-year-old brother and 15-year-old nephew.
Their bodies were reportedly found in the boat when the Angel fishing vessel rescued Mr Pichugin.
Video grab of the man adrift in the inflatable boat in the Sea of Okhotsk before he was rescued (Official Telegram channel of the Russian Far Eastern Transport Prosecutor’s Office/AP)
Media reports said the three men had travelled to the Shantar Islands, off the north-western shore of the Sea of Okhotsk. They went missing after setting off to return to Sakhalin Island on August 9. A rescue effort was launched but failed to locate them.
Russian media reported that the trio had a small food ration and about 5.2 gallons (20 litres) of water when their engine failed and they found themselves adrift.
Mr Pichugin only weighed around 110lb (50kg) when he was found, having lost half of his body weight, news reports said.
He did not immediately say how he had managed to survive in the Sea of Okhotsk, the coldest sea in East Asia and known for its gales, or how his brother and nephew died.
Russian emergency workers transfer Mikhail Pichugin into an ambulance after he was rescued by a fishing vessel following 67 days adrift in the Sea of Okhotsk (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service/AP)
When the crew of the fishing vessel spotted the tiny inflatable boat on their radar, they initially thought it was a buoy or a piece of junk, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper said, but they turned on the spotlight to make sure and were shocked to see Mr Pichugin.
A video released by the prosecutor’s office showed an emaciated man in a life jacket desperately shouting “Come here!” and the crew working to pull him to safety.
“I have no strength left,” he said as he was rescued.
Prosecutors said they have launched an investigation into the incident on charges of violation of safety rules that resulted in deaths.