Three sailors from France and Russia were rescued on Wednesday after sharks attacked their catamaran while attempting to sail from Vanuatu to Australia.
A distress signal was received about 1:30 a.m., according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA). Multiple shark attacks left both hulls of the men’s 9-meter boat destroyed when rescuers arrived more than 500 kilometers east of the Australian coast in the Coral Sea.
The “Dugong Ace,” a ship flying the flag of Panama that carries vehicles, was persuaded to aid with the rescue mission and successfully brought the two Russians and the Frenchman to safety. In addition, a rescue aircraft came to help.
The AMSA duty manager, Joe Zeller, said the rescued men were overjoyed and grateful to be found.
In footage filmed by a rescue aircraft, the damaged catamaran is floating in the water as the massive Dugong Ace approaches it.
The men, aged 28 to 64, are expected to land in Brisbane, Australia on Thursday.
Zeller estimates that the voyage from Vanuatu in the Pacific to Australia would take a similar ship between two to three weeks.
Photos seen from above reveal that the catamaran sustained significant damage, with the bow of one hull wholly destroyed.
Zeller claims that the men’s lives were saved because their emergency beacon was encoded with GPS coordinates.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has called this a “timely reminder” of always needing to carry a distress signal device. GPS-enabled EPIRBs and PLBs might save lives in a dire situation.
There are a variety of possible triggers for a shark attack aboard a boat, as outlined by Zeller. The Coral Sea has many top predators, including reef sharks, tuna, and marlin.
Last year, three men were rescued “in the nick of time” by the United States Coast Guard after their fishing boat collapsed off the coast of Louisiana and sharks attacked them for more than a day.
