A California man survived five hours in freezing water with the assistance of a friend from the animal kingdom. A seal guided the man, Scott Thompson, to safety after he fell from his fishing boat into the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Thompson was fishing for sea urchins at the time of the incident. He insists an error in judgment caused him to fall from the boat in the middle of the night.
Rescue Details
Thompson was wearing merely a t-shirt and shorts at the time he fell from his fishing boat into the water. He left the boat motor running, and the vessel sped away from him after he tumbled into the frigid water. Thompson swam as hard as he could to catch up to the boat. Unfortunately, he could not get within reach of the vessel.
It is at this point that a harbor seal arrived to rescue the stranded fisherman. The harbor seal playfully bobbed up and down in the water in front of Thompson. The seal bumped him to provide a nudge in the right direction, as well as some much-needed momentum. The seal even buoyed Thompson as he continued to make his way towards an oil platform.
All in all, it took about five hours for Thompson to reach the oil platform. Once he reached safety on the platform, Thompson was provided with first aid treatment by members of the Coast Guard, and he was then transported to a nearby hospital. Thankfully, Thompson merely suffered from hypothermia and is likely to make a full recovery.
A Changed Man
Thompson later took to social media to document the event in vivid detail. He finished his post stating, “I’m a believer that there is a higher power now. I don’t know what it is, but there is a power greater than me. That was shown to me and I will never doubt that for the rest of my life.”
