This "Shark Saves Castaway" Story Is Ridiculously Fishy

Here’s one of those feel-good stories that the Internet just totally loves: Toakai Teitoi, a 41-year old man from the island of Maiana, spent 15 weeks adrift in the Pacific after the 15-foot boat he was riding in with his brother-in-law ran out of gas in the middle of two-hour journey from Kiribati to Maiana. Teitoi had previously flown to Kiribati to be sworn in as a policeman, and planned on cruising home with his brother-in-law on May 27. The pair fished during the trip, and ended up sleeping overnight on the water. When they woke up, they’d run out of gas and were completely lost.

Teitoi nearly died of dehydration — as his brother-in-law did — but a fortuitous rainstorm allowed him to fill up a couple jugs of water at the last minute. Then, one day, he saw a fishing boat sailing off in the distance, but it didn’t notice him… until a shark showed up to nudge him towards the fishing vessel. Teitoi was saved!

This is all according to a Sky News story that sounds just a smidge ridiculous. 15 weeks is an enormous amount of time to be floating around in a small boat. Just to survive 100 days in the tropical sun, we’re talking dozens of gallons of water and scores of pounds pounds of provisions, far more than any sane person would put together for a two-hour journey. But hey, maybe they were good at fishing.

Logistics aside, the fact that the two slept on the water rather than finish a rather short journey, and somehow left their engine running the whole time, is even more absurd. But, you know, I’ve been on a few fishing trips in my day and they’ve all ended with people falling asleep because of the sauce for no reason and leaving things on that they shouldn’t.

On July 4, brother-in-law Lelu Falaile died due to dehydration. Teitoi said he slept next to the body for the night and then buried him at sea. The next day, the lifesaving rains came, which allowed him to live long enough for the shark incident on September 11:

Dejected, he did what he had done most days, curling up under a small covered area in the bow to stay out of the tropical sun. Mr Teitoi said he woke in the afternoon to the sound of scratching and looked overboard to see a six-foot shark circling the boat and bumping the hull. When the shark had his attention it swam off. “He was guiding me to a fishing boat. I looked up and there was the stern of a ship and I could see crew with binoculars looking at me.”

Yes, it is nice to see a news story that doesn’t scream SHARKS WILL KILL YOUR BABY, but this is beyond the pale. A six-foot shark was able to “nudge” a 15-foot boat into the path of an otherwise-oblivious fishing boat? Impossible. Unless a whole team of sharks was roped up, there’s no way in a hell that Teitoi’s boat, which was apparently too far away for the rescuing vessel to see, was then pushed such a long distance that it became visible. Or maybe, just maybe, the fishing boat was steaming his way all along.

Teitoi’s first request upon being rescued was a smoke, which is probably the most realistic part of the story. After offering him some food and drink — remember, Teitoi had spent 15 weeks at sea — the crew of the vessel that rescued him decided he was fit enough for them to continue their fishing trip. Does that sound absolutely insane to you?

I mean, I suppose that Teitoi’s story could all be true (although, considering a number of Pacific nuclear tests occurred on May 27 in various years, and that the only other the darkest date in the tale is July 4 and salvation comes on September 11, it could also be anti-colonial propaganda/hallucinations) but there’s a shocking lack of corroboration in the Sky story. (No one outside of Teitoi was interviewed!) Oh well, at least the film adaptation won’t need much work.