A New Zealand fisherman pulled into the ocean by a marlin survived 24 hours alone being circled by sharks before rescuers spotted a glint off his watch.
Will Fransen, 61, said he tried and failed multiple times to catch the attention of passing boats after he fell overboard 55km off New Zealand’s North Island and watched his own boat motor away with nobody on board.
Fransen had set off on a solo fishing trip on Tuesday aboard his 12m boat, with plans to return the following day.
He hooked a marlin — a large fish similar to a swordfish — and was about to release it back into the ocean when “everything went horribly wrong’ and the powerful game fish pulled him off the boat into the water. He tried to swim back to the boat but within a few strokes realised the power was still on and it was moving away from him too quickly.
“I grabbed the line with the marlin attached and started pulling the line out,” he recounted from his hospital bed on Thursday. “I tried pulling my way towards the boat only to have the line slip out of my hand, which is pretty gutting, because next thing my boat’s idling over the horizon and I’m treading water.”
He then tried to swim towards the nearby Alderman Islands, but the current was taking him in the opposite direction. “I gave up and just treaded water and watched the beautiful sunset overhead,” he told the New Zealand Herald.
Fransen then saw a fin appear in the water and spotted at least one other shark near by. “Fortunately it decided it wasn’t interested. It would have been a good couple of metres so it could have easily dealt to me.”
As the night wore on he reflected on family, friends and life and regularly hoisted his harness into the air to drain water from it, hoping it would be buoyant enough to keep him afloat after his death.
He wanted it to be easy to find his body so that his children would be able to cash in his life insurance policy, he said. “I would have given any money for a life jacket. I thought I was safe in the boat because the rails were up.”
After spending a harrowing night alone and expecting to die, Fransen was eventually rescued on Wednesday by three young fishermen who caught a glimpse of reflected sunlight from his watch.
James McDonnell, Max White and Tyler Taffs motored over and pulled him from the water, wrapping him in everything they could find to bring his temperature up. Fransen gulped down warm bottles of water and cranberry juice.
White said the trio were in disbelief when a mysterious glimmer in the distance led them to a man in the water. “He was a little bit worse for wear as you would expect, he was severely dehydrated and incredibly cold to touch,” White said. “So we just wrapped him up in every bit of clothing that we had on board to try and protect him and warm him up as much as possible.”
Fransen told his rescuers he feared being taken by a shark. “He recalled his night in terms of being circled by a shark for a while there,” White said. “He had been awake for nearly two days — I guess you don’t want to be sleeping if you’re trying to keep yourself afloat.”
Fransen is still hopeful he can get his boat back, as it continues to head out to the Pacific with no one onboard. He has chartered two aircraft to search for the vessel.
