Coast Guard rescues trio stranded on uninhabited island for 33 days

The US Coast Guard on Tuesday rescued three Cuban nationals stranded for more than a month on a desert island in the Bahamas. The two men and a woman survived by eating conch and rats, a Coast Guard official told a Florida news channel.

A coast guard surveillance plane spotted the castaways during a routine patrol on Monday, the agency said in a statement. “They noticed some unusual flags there, different colors, so they noticed orange,” Lt. Justin Dougherty told WPLG-TV. “They went back to check, and they noticed that three people were pointing them out.”

Plane commander Mike Allert told the station the trio ate conch and rats to survive and set up a large cross in Anguilla Cay, Bahamas. The Coast Guard released a photo showing the makeshift shelter used by the castaways.

The Cubans said they were on the island for 33 days, the Coast Guard said. Their boat capsized and they swam to the atoll, Dougherty told WPLG-TV.

The crew of the surveillance plane dropped food, water and a radio castaways, the Coast Guard said. A helicopter crew then took them off the island and took them to a hospital in Key West, Florida.

“Our lifeguard found them tired, dehydrated and showing obvious signs of just being out in the elements for the extended time they were there,” Allert told WPLG-TV. The Coast Guard said they were not injured.

It was not immediately clear whether the Cubans were lost fishermen or were trying to migrate to another country, Petty Officer Second Class Brandon Murray told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.