An Indonesian teenager has survived 49 days adrift at sea in a fishing hut, before he was rescued by a Panamanian-flagged vessel and returned home.
Aldi Novel Adilang, a 19-year-old from Sulawesi, worked as a lamp keeper on a floating fish trap, known locally as rompong, located 125km out at sea.
The teenager was employed to light the rompong’s lamps, designed to attract the fish, and according to his father had done the job since he was sixteen.
Each week someone from his company would come to harvest the fish from the traps and deliver him fresh supplies of food, water and fuel.
The small, floating wooden hut – one of 50 owned by the company and spread across the waters of Manado – was anchored to the seabed by a long rope and suspended by bouys.
But in mid-July heavy winds snapped its moorings and sent Aldi adrift into the ocean.
The teenager only had a few days worth of supplies and survived by catching fish, burning wood from his hut to cook them, and sipping seawater through his clothes to minimize his salt intake.
For more read the full of article at The Guardian
