A Russian man was rescued after 67 days adrift in a small boat in the cold Sea of Okhotsk, Russian authorities reported on Tuesday (15). His brother and teenage son died during the ordeal, according to Russian state media RIA Novosti, which identified the survivor as Mikhail Pichugin, 46.
Footage of the rescue released by Russian prosecutors shows a bearded man wearing an orange life jacket, floating on a small catamaran with a red flag raised on a mast, as rescuers work to reach him.
The Sea of Okhotsk, located near eastern Siberia and the Kamchatka Peninsula, typically freezes between October and March and is considered the coldest sea in East Asia. The two men and a 15-year-old boy departed on the catamaran on August 9, prosecutors said.
“After some time, contact was lost with them, and their location remained unknown,” said Elena Krasnoyarova, a spokeswoman for the Far Eastern Transport Prosecutor’s Office.
“On October 14, around 10:00 PM, the catamaran was spotted by a passing fishing boat in the Sea of Okhotsk near the settlement of Ust-Khayryuzovo in the Kamchatka region,” she added.
Prosecutors said they are still working to determine the circumstances surrounding the incident and are investigating violations of water traffic safety, which resulted in the death of two or more people due to negligence.
The rescued man’s wife told Russian state media that his weight may have contributed to his survival, as he weighed around 100 kg. She also said that Pichugin, his late brother, and nephew had enough food to last about two weeks.
Pichugin will be taken to a hospital in the city of Magadan, in Russia’s Far East, for medical treatment, RIA reported. He is in “serious condition, emaciated, but conscious,” according to the fishing company director who found the drifting boat.
