On Saturday 16 March 2025, Peru’s state news agency Andina reported that 61 year old fisherman Máximo Napa Castro has been found alive in the Pacific Ocean after spending 95 days lost at sea.
On 7 December 2024, Castro had set off on his fishing boat from Marcona, a coastal town in southern Peru, but bad weather forced him off course and he lost direction.
He was found on Tuesday 11 March 2025 by an Ecuadorian fishing boat in waters off the coast of northern Peru, heavily dehydrated and in critical condition
After his rescue, Napa Castro told local media he survived by drinking rainwater collected on the boat and eating insects, birds and a turtle, but spent the last 15 days without eating.
Napa Castro told local media he kept thinking about his family to “hold on” to life.
According to Ecuavisa, Castro has received medical attention at the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes hospital in Paita and was discharged on Saturday 16 March 2025.
