Fishermen floating in cooler rescued after 5 days stranded at sea

(CNN) — Two fishermen were rescued Wednesday after floating adrift more than 100 miles off the coast of Mexico with no food or water for five days, the Mexican navy announced.

Search and rescue efforts began on August 14, when the men’s fishing cooperative sent out a distress call saying it had lost contact with the 53-year-old and 32-year-old fishermen.

The Mexican navy searched a vast area of the Pacific Ocean by sea and air, eventually finding the two men floating in a large fishing cooler about 150 miles off the coast of Chiapas, a southern state in Mexico that borders Guatemala.

Both men were airlifted to port and received medical attention before being reunited with their families, the navy said.

The Mexican Navy did not identify the men and it’s not clear how their vessel became disabled.

Video shared by the navy shows a large turquoise box with the two men inside bobbing in dark ocean swells as rescue crews move in. A ship approaches the cooler and the two men are hoisted to safety.

“We didn’t think we were going to survive these days,” one of the fishermen said in a video released by the Mexican Navy. “The only thing we could do was pray to God and wait for the help of all of you here from the Navy.”

“It was the hardest thing imaginable,” the other fisherman said. “I wouldn’t wish it on anybody – not even my worst enemy.” The men said they ate or drank “absolutely nothing” for the five days at sea.

The rescue demonstrates the Navy’s “commitment to the public to safeguard human life at sea,” it said.

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