The Latest: Colombian navy: Adrift mariner is a fisherman

By The Associated Press

HONOLULU, Hawaii – The Latest on the rescue of a Colombian mariner who was lost at sea for 2 months (all times local):

11:30 a.m.

The Colombian navy’s press office says the mariner who survived two months adrift at sea is a fisherman named Javier Eduardo Olaya. The press office doesn’t know where in Colombia he is from.

The press office says Olaya and his three shipmates had been fishing near the protected marine sanctuary of Malpelo Island, off the coast of Colombia.

His shipmates were from Ecuador.

The U.S. Coast Guard says the 29-year-old man survived by eating fish and seagulls after the engine on his 23-foot skiff became disabled. Olaya’s three shipmates didn’t survive.

A merchant vessel picked Olaya up more than 2,000 miles southeast of Hawaii and brought him near Honolulu, where they transferred him to the Coast Guard.

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10 a.m.

The U.S. Coast Guard says it’s not investigating how a Colombian mariner became lost at sea and how his three shipmates died because the case falls outside its purview.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Tara Molle says the mariner isn’t a U.S. citizen. The 23-foot skiff the sailors were on wasn’t a U.S.-flagged ship. She says there is no reason for the Coast Guard to investigate because there is no tie to the U.S.

She says the Coast Guard’s responsibility in this case was to make sure the man was rescued and brought to safety.

A merchant vessel found the man more than 2,000 miles southeast of Hilo, Hawaii. The Nikkei Verde brought him near Honolulu, where a Coast Guard boat brought him to shore and handed him over to Colombian consulate officials.

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9:30 a.m.

A Colombian mariner who was lost at sea for more than two months says he’s grateful to God for his life and thanks those who rescued him.

The unidentified mariner told a U.S. Coast Guard interpreter in Honolulu that it feels good to be back on land.

A merchant ship spotted the man adrift more than 2,000 miles southeast of Hilo, Hawaii in late April. The crew of the Nikkei Verde picked him up and brought him near Honolulu, where they transferred him to a small Coast Guard boat on Wednesday.

Petty Officer Second Class Tara Molle says Coast Guard is unable to release his name because the agency didn’t receive it until after the Coast Guard closed its own case when it handed him over to Colombian consulate officials.

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11 p.m.

The U.S. Coast Guard says a Colombian mariner has been rescued after surviving a two-month ordeal in the southeastern Pacific, but his three companions reportedly died.

The agency says in a news release that the 29-year-old man survived by eating fish and seagulls, after their 23-foot skiff became disabled in a lightly travelled area of the ocean.

A merchant ship that rescued the man more than 2,000 miles southeast of Hawaii notified the Coast Guard and he was brought to Honolulu in good condition Wednesday.

The release said that the “three other men reportedly perished at sea,” and their bodies were not aboard the skiff. No other details on the deaths were immediately available.

The survivor, who wasn’t identified, said that the four of them had set out from Colombia more than two months earlier, but eventually their engine quit.

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