Good Shark, Good Shark!

MAJURO, Marshall Islands — A man lost at sea for 15 weeks was rescued after a serendipitous meeting with a shark. Toaki Teitoi, a 41-year-old policeman in the central Pacific island nation of Kiribati, said he had drifted in a wooden boat for 106 days before he was picked up by a fishing boat near the Marshall Islands. The man had watched a movie about being lost at sea one day before he and his brother-in-law embarked May 27 on what was supposed to be a two-hour trip from Tarawa, the capital of Kiribati, to Teitoi's hometown, Maiana.

Teitoi and his brother-in-law, Lelu Falaile, 52, stopped to fish along the way and decided to sleep on the boat. When the pair awoke the next day, they found they had drifted out of sight of the island, and soon ran out of fuel. Teitoi told the Herald the pair had food, but no water. Falaile died July 4 due to dehydration, he said.

"I left him there overnight and slept next to him like at a funeral," Teitoi told the Herald. He then buried his brother-in-law at sea. A day later, a storm blew through the area, providing Teitoi with fresh water. The morning of Sept. 11 brought a fishing boat into his sights, but he remained unseen. He fell asleep and awoke in the afternoon to the sound of scratching: a six-foot shark was circling the boat, bumping the hull as it went.

"He was guiding me to a fishing boat," Teitoi said. "I looked up and there was the stern of a ship and I could see crew with binoculars looking at me." Teitoi said if the shark had not nudged him awake, he would not have been able to alert the crew of the ship that he was in trouble, and the crew "might have carried on sailing past me." Teitoi was given food and water and remained with the men for a few days. He is scheduled to fly home on Sunday.

Story thanks to Stephanie Grimes of KSL!