The U.S. Coast Guard rescued three Cuban citizens who were stranded for more than a month on a desert island in the Bahamas on Tuesday. The two men and a woman survived by eating shells and mice, a Coast Guard official told a Florida news station.
A Coast Guard surveillance plane spotted the castaways during a routine patrol on Monday, the agency said in a statement. “They noticed some unusual flags there, some different colors, so they noticed a little bit of orange,” Lt. Justin Dougherty told WPLG-TV. “They came around to check and noticed three people signaling to them.”
Aircraft commander Mike Allert told the station that the trio was eating shells and mice to survive and that they had set up a large cross on Anguilla Cay in the Bahamas. The Coast Guard released a photo showing the makeshift shelter used by the castaways.
Coast Guard Lieutenant Riley Beecher
Cubans said they had been on the island for 33 days, the Coast Guard said. Their boat capsized and they swam to the atoll, Dougherty told WPLG-TV.
The surveillance plane crew dropped food, water and a radio for castaways, said the Coast Guard. Subsequently, a helicopter crew lifted them off the island and took them to a hospital in Key West, Florida.
“Our rescue swimmer found that they were fatigued, dehydrated and showing definite signs of just being out of the elements for the long period of time they were there,” Allert told WPLG-TV. The Coast Guard said they were not injured.
On Wednesday morning, the Coast Guard said on Twitter the United States border patrol took custody of Cubans from the hospital and they were transferred to the United States immigration and customs agency in Pompano Beach, Florida.
First-class Coast Guard noncommissioned officer Nicole Santaretti
It was not immediately clear whether Cubans were lost fishermen or trying to migrate to another country, second-class noncommissioned officer Brandon Murray told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.