This may of course be a simple fluky coincidence. Yet when a shark
makes a point to disturb a human being sleeping in a drifting boat
allowing that person to effectively rescue himself, one must wonder
and question everything we think we know about shark intelligence and
motivations.
This was someone's good deed for the day and perhaps it is time to
give them some peace.
It is always a delight when nature confounds.
Shark 'Rescues' Man
Lost At Sea For 15 Weeks
After 15 weeks
drifting at sea, sleeping next to his dead brother-in-law, a man is
edged to safety by a most unlikely ally.
A lost fisherman who
drifted at sea for 15 weeks, sleeping next to his dead
brother-in-law, was eventually helped to safety - by a shark.
Toakai Teitoi was
stuck on a 15ft wooden boat for more than 100 days after he ran out
of fuel and the vessel drifted deep into the Pacific.
The 41-year-old
Kiribati policeman relived his harrowing voyage after a fishing boat
eventually picked him up and took him to Majuro in the Marshall
Islands.
The father-of-six told
of sleeping with the body of his brother-in-law who died during the
ordeal, suffering severe dehydration.
And he said it was
only after the intervention of a circling shark that he was
eventually rescued.
Mr Teitoi's ordeal
began on May 27 after he had flown from his home island of Maiana to
the Kiribati capital of Tarawa to be sworn in as a policeman.
Instead of flying home
he decided to join his brother-in-law Lelu Falaile, 52, on what was
supposed to be a two-hour sea journey back to Maiana.
But after stopping to
fish along the way and sleeping overnight, they woke the following
day to find they had drifted out of sight of Maiana and ran out of
fuel.
"We had food, but
the problem was we had nothing to drink," he said.
As dehydration took
hold, Mr Teitoi, a Catholic, said he turned to prayer as it gave him
strength. But Mr Falaile's health began failing and he died on July
4.
"I left him there
overnight and slept next to him like at a funeral," Mr Teitoi
said. He buried his brother-in-law at sea the next morning.
Only a day after Mr
Falaile passed away a storm blew into the area and rained for several
days allowing Mr Teitoi to fill two five-gallon containers with
water.
"There were two
choices in my mind at the time. Either someone would find me or I
would follow my brother-in-law. It was out of my control."
He continued to pray
regularly and on the morning of September 11 caught sight of a
fishing boat in the distance but the crew were unable to see him.
Dejected, he did what
he had done most days, curling up under a small covered area in the
bow to stay out of the tropical sun.
Mr Teitoi said he woke
in the afternoon to the sound of scratching and looked overboard to
see a six-foot shark circling the boat and bumping the hull.
When the shark had his
attention it swam off.
"He was guiding
me to a fishing boat. I looked up and there was the stern of a ship
and I could see crew with binoculars looking at me."
When the vessel,
Marshalls 203, pulled Mr Teitoi on board the first thing he asked for
was a cigarette.
"They told me to
wait. They took me to meet the captain, and they gave me juice and
some food."
With Mr Teitoi in no
physical danger, the Marshalls 203 continued fishing for several days
before returning to Majuro.
"I'll never go by
boat again. I'm taking a plane," Mr Teitoi said.
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