Pair found after 25 days adrift
Two desperate, dehydrated men found bobbing in a bathtub-sized cooler off the coast of Australia told authorities they spent 25 days adrift after their fishing boat sank.
There was no sign of 18 other crew members, officials said.
The two men apparently lived on monsoon water and fish chunks stored in the cooler.
Authorities were amazed that the men, from the Southeast Asian nation of Burma, were spotted by a routine customs service flight that patrols for far larger craft such as illegal trawlers in Australia's northern waters.
A photograph taken from the patrol plane showed the men standing shirtless in the pink cooler - a waist-high container often used to store freshly caught fish - and waving frantically.
The men, 22 and 24, were rescued by helicopter on Saturday, Maritime Safety Authority spokeswoman Tracey Jiggins said. They were treated for dehydration and released on Tuesday.
"These two people being spotted is miraculous in itself in the huge expanse of ocean after drifting for 25 days," said Ms Jiggins.
Authorities have not said what the men ate or drank during their ordeal. Media reports have said they survived on fish chunks that had been stored in the cooler and rain water that pooled on the floor.
One rescuer, pilot Terry Gadenne, told Seven Network television that each man drank about four pints of water within seconds of being hoisted aboard the helicopter. "They were dehydrated, there's no doubt about it, and very keen to get out," Gadenne said.
The men told police they had been aboard a 30-foot wooden fishing boat that sank on December 23 with a total crew of 20 from Thailand and Burma.