'Miracle' boys lost at sea found

Three Tokelauan teenagers missing at sea for 50 days drank sea water and ate a seagull to survive their ordeal.
They were found on Wednesday by a fishing boat in a lonely part of the ocean.
The three boys, Samuel Perez and Filo Filo, both 15, and Edward Nasau, 14, went missing from the atoll of Atafu on October 5 and survived by eating a solitary seagull which landed on their small craft, the boys told the San Nikuna tuna fishing boat's first mate Tai Fredricsen, of the Bay of Islands. They also caught some fish.
Mr Fredricsen was at the helm of the tuna boat, just west of Uvea in the French territory of Wallis and Futuna and northeast of Fiji, when he saw the boat, the Dominion Post reported.
``We saw a small vessel, a little speedboat on our bows, and we knew it was a little weird.''
The boys started waving, so he pulled the vessel up as close as he could to them. They were ecstatic to see the tuna boat.
``They were very skinny, but physically in good health, compared to what they have been through,'' Mr Fredricsen said.
The crew put the boys on to intravenous drips to rehydrate them before giving them small portions of fruit and fluids, he said.
The boys were in great shape for the time they had been at sea, and had survived on a couple of coconuts they had on board and by catching and eating the seagull and some fish.
Mr Fredricsen said the crew gave them small portions of fruit and fluids.
``They were having little sips of seawater to survive'' and would have survived only a few more days, Mr Fredricsen said.
``It was a miracle we got to them.''
The boys had been given up for dead by the Atafu community, who held a memorial service after an extensive search involving a Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion failed to find them.