Man says he ate birds, turtles to survive 13 months adrift

A man identifying himself as Jose Salvador Alvarenga told officials that he left Mexico in December 2012 for a day of shark fishing and ended up adrift, surviving 13 months on fish, birds and turtles before washing ashore on the tiny atoll of Ebon thousands of miles away. “It’s hard for me to imagine someone surviving 13 months at sea,” said U.S. Ambassador Tom Armbruster in Majuro. “But it’s also hard to imagine how someone might arrive on Ebon out of the blue. Certainly this guy has had an ordeal.” Other officials were reacting cautiously to the man’s story while they try to piece together more information.