This Man Survived After Being Floating For 67 Days In The Cold Sea Of Okhotsk

Illustration of the Sea of Okhotsk. (Wikimedia Commons/JukoFF)

JAKARTA - A Russian man has been rescued after 67 days of being adrift on a small boat in the very cold Sea of Okhotsk in mid-October, Russian authorities said.

According to Russian state media RIA Novosti, the man's brother and his teenage son died in the incident, who said the survivors were 46-year-old Mikhail Pichugin.

The rescue video released by Russian prosecutor showed a man with an orange life jacket floating on a small catamaran-type boat with a red flag flying at the post, while emergency response officers tried to reach it, quoted from CNN, October 30.

The Okhotsk Sea is mostly covered by Siberian east of Russia and the Kamchatka Peninsula. The sea is usually frozen between October and March, and is the coldest sea in East Asia.

Two adult men and the son of one of them aged 15 departed with a catamaran on August 9, prosecutors said.

"After some time, contact with them is lost, their location remains unknown," said spokeswoman for the Far East Russian transportation prosecutor's office, Elena Krasnoyarova.

"On October 14, at around 22:00 a.m. the catamaran was seen by a fishing boat passing through the Sea of Okhotsk near the Ust-Khayryuzo residential area in the Kamchatka area," he added.

Prosecutors said they were still conducting an investigation to establish conditions surrounding the incident and allegations of water traffic safety violations, resulting in the death of two or more people due to negligence.

The man's wife who was rescued told Russian state media her weight may play a role in her survival, given her weight of about 220 pounds (100 kg). She told RIA, Pichugin and her late brother and nephew had enough food to survive for about two weeks.

Pichugin will be taken to hospital for medical treatment in the city of Magadan, in Russia's far east, RIA reported.

"He is in serious condition, thin dry, but conscious," said the director of the fisheries company who found the boat adrift to RIA.