Three sailors were rescued on Wednesday from their inflatable catamaran after it suffered damage from numerous shark attacks.
The sailors issued a distress call on Wednesday after the damage to the catamaran made it clear that they could not continue on their trip. They had been planning a trip from the island of Vanuatu to Brisbane in northern Australia as a part of a voyage around the world.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said that it received the distress call at about 1:30 a.m. and found the sailors on their boat about 500 miles away from Australia.
The 30-foot catamaran had sustained damage from shark attacks to both hulls.
The three sailors, two from Russia and one from France, were rescued with the help of another ship and a rescue plane. The catamaran was abandoned.
“The three males were very happy to be rescued, and they’re all healthy and well," said Joe Zeller, deputy manager of the agency's Canberra facility. “They were very well prepared. They were calm, but of course, they were elated to be rescued.”
The sailors indicated that the sharks first attacked the boat on Monday and it began to sink on Tuesday.
The expedition was meant to commemorate historical events accomplished by Russian sailors, according to the Russian Geographic Society. A separate vessel from the voyage around the world also suffered damage from shark attacks as it sailed near Tahiti in June.
Zeller said that the rescuers were able to quickly find the sailors because they had been prepared with an emergency distress beacon. He added that there are many reasons why a shark might attack a boat.
“However, the motivations of these sharks is unclear,” Zeller said.
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