Fisherman dubbed the ‘luckiest man on the planet’ after rescue
A fisherman who fell overboard trying to save his GoPro has been rescued after six hours lost in shark-infested waters.
Ross Chapman was fishing off Exmouth last week when his beloved GoPro fell into the ocean as he reeled in a whooping 250 kilogram marlin.
The 30-year-old New Zealand-born man leaned over the boat’s edge to re-gather the device when he fell in with his boat, Poppa George, still in gear.
The vessel then drifted away, leaving the boilermaker to tread water for six hours.
“Yes, I consider myself very lucky,” Mr Chapman said.
“I know how much of a big deal it is that I did get found.
“I know how big the ocean is.”
Mr Chapman went overboard around 30nM off Exmouth’s North West Cape.
Initial media reports that Mr Chapman was pulled into the water by the marlin are incorrect.
Mr Chapman's boat was spotted four hours after he went into the water, with rescue crews called in.
Remarkably, Mr Chapman was found as a “speck in the water”.
“(He’s) the luckiest man on the planet I reckon,” Exmouth Marine Rescue Group’s Rusty Ellis said.
“I reckon he had a one in a billion chance of being found, and they found him.”
Exhausted and suffering mild hypothermia, Mr Chapman knows he survived against the odds.
