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Dramatic Rescue at Sea

Fishermen Rescued After 5 Days in Cooler

Daniel Gerrero Martins and Jose Luis Portales Viegas survived nearly a week in the Pacific Ocean after their boat sank off Mexico's coast

Two Mexican Fishermen Rescued After Five Days Adrift in a Cooler

Two fishermen from Mexico were found alive after enduring five days adrift in the Pacific Ocean, floating inside a large cooler without food or water.

The men, Daniel Gerrero Martins, 53, and Jose Luis Portales Viegas, 32, had set out from the fishing village of Pardon in Chiapas state. Contact was lost with them a day after their departure when their vessel sank.

Search teams initially attempted to reconstruct their sailing route before expanding operations with aircraft and Mexican Navy vessels. The pair were eventually located floating in the cooler approximately 240 kilometers (150 miles) off the Chiapas coast.

According to Mexico's Navy Secretariat, "the deployment of naval and air forces made it possible to expand the search, locate the fishermen, bring them to safety, and reunite them with their families."

The two men were rescued suffering from severe dehydration and airlifted by helicopter to a hospital for treatment. Mexican authorities have opened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the boat's sinking. Preliminary assessments suggest that strong winds and harsh weather conditions may have been contributing factors to the incident.

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