If you asked us to think about what the day in the life of a fisherman would be, we honestly wouldn’t be able to guess just what kind of things they get up to. But one thing we’re sure of is that a fisherman’s typical day wouldn’t include rescuing a pretty rare animal that had been stranded on an iceberg!
So when a group of fishermen located just off the shore of Canada spotted an Arctic fox who was in desperate need of their help, they must have thought that they were hallucinating. But heroically, the three fishermen stepped in to help, and it was thanks to them that they were able to save the fox’s life. What an amazing experience.
Fishermen Mallory Harrigan, Cliff Russell, and Allan Russell were working aboard a crab-fishing boat a few miles off the shore from Labrador, Canada when they came across a pretty unique surprise.
Atop a mushroom-shaped iceberg that was drifting through the sea was what at first appeared to be a baby seal. However, as the team got closer, they discovered that it was actually a terrified and starving Arctic fox.
As Arctic foxes aren’t able to swim, the poor little guy had been stranded on the iceberg for quite some time. He was wet through and under attack from circling seagulls, and the team knew that they didn’t have much time to save him.
“It had probably got stuck out there looking for a meal,” Mallory Harrigan told Bored Panda. “Cliff says he thinks he got out there to check out a bit of meat on the ice and it broke apart, sending the cute fox out to sea.”
Knowing that they had little time to spare, Mallory and her crew-mates immediately jumped into action to rescue the stranded fox.
They pulled up alongside the iceberg in their boat and tried to tempt the terrified animal on board. But the fox, who had probably never seen a human before in his life, was more than a little cautious. The crew knew that they were the only ones who could save the little fox, as the winds had changed and were driving all the ice farther out to sea – so they knew that they weren’t going to give up until they had succeeded.
“He was trying to run away from us at first, so we had a tough time getting him aboard,” Mallory recalled. “We had to break the ice he was on and get him with the dip net. He fought and fought to get away until he literally couldn’t move anymore.”
Once on the boat, the crew quickly made a makeshift bed for the fox where he could be nice and warm and began to nurse him back to health.
We can’t imagine how the fox must have felt going on a boat for the first time, but we’re sure it was a welcome relief from the drifting iceberg.
“We scooped him up, and he retreated to the corner. He was too weak to do anything when we brought him aboard; he slept most of the way! When we came to, he was a bit nervous, but once we fed him, he was pretty calm. He wouldn’t eat at all for the first 5 or 6 hours. We gave him chips and crackers, but he didn’t want anything until he woke up, and we fed him a tin of Vienna sausages.”
Once back to the safety of dry land, the fox was able to go on his way – no doubt feeling a little shaken from his experience, but otherwise happy and content with a belly full of sausage.
He certainly had a lucky escape that day, and Mallory says that she still sees him around from time to time, exploring some old dog houses in William’s Harbor. What a lucky little guy! Watch the video of the fox’s return to dry land below.
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