[Magi604]

I am curious as to how he caught these turtles and birds in the open sea while in his no doubt famished shape.

"shoved his arms into the water up to his shoulders . . . When a fish swam between his hands, he smashed them shut"

Seriously, this needs some mythbusters-style testing.

[GigabyteCoin]

I remember walking the boardwalk of Atlantic City when I was very young. My grandfather (a farmer) asked me if I wanted to "see something". Sure, I said.

The next thing I knew, he had grabbed a seagull by both feet with one hand and it was flapping it's wings wildly and squawking into my terrified face.

So I'd imagine that after a few weeks at sea and actually depending on catching birds/fish by hand for survival that one could do so.

[qume]

Birds and turtles are curious about drifting things, like boats. And both are easy to catch (well, relatively).

I haven't caught fish with my hands but at sea been in situations where it didn't seem impossible. And the fishermen I know in the area (I live there on a boat) are magicians.

So sure, everything needs testing but I have a bit of a frame of reference around this one and it raises no red flags for me at all. Plus it's inline with the other lost-at-sea books I've read.

[Magi604]

Fair enough, I have no frame of reference for this stuff at all, so it seems like magic to me.

Someone else in this comments section linked to an article that explains how he caught the turtles. Basically (like you mentioned) turtles would get curious about the boat and swim right up to it, so he was able to get them that way. I presume the fish and birds behaved in the same manner, so it really lowers the red flags for me.

I would still love to see a video of someone catching these things the same way the drifter did though.

[PhasmaFelis]

I once put my hand around an urban squirrel's tail. Could have held it if I'd squeezed a bit. It was sitting on a wall munching some garbage, and I just walked straight up to it. Have you ever seen a squirrel do a double-take?

I guess my point is that even slippery little animals aren't as uncatchable as one would expect, if you can take them by surprise.

[JackFr]

That seems like step one of a plan to get rabies.

[ghshephard]

According to the CDC, squirrels are almost never a source of rabies. http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/pets/ - that is, unless they are acting in an unusual manner, such as letting people walk up to them and grab them....

[PhasmaFelis]

It was a campus squirrel. They're generally used to people walking by within a few feet. This was just a little slow to shift gears, apparently.

[Cymen]

Boats typically need their bottom cleaned regularly if they are kept in the water. Based on the other comment (the turtles came to the boat), I would guess the bottom had thick growth that attracted the turtles. Also fish are attracted to shade (it's common to see fish hanging out in the shade under piers for example).

[ghshephard]

Tickling trout is illegal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trout_tickling) - so presumably it's not that difficult.

[drumdance]

Based on my scuba diving experiences, at least, giant turtles are pretty slow. They don't have to be fast because I don't think they have any natural predators once they get beyond a certain size (could be wrong about that).

What's fascinating to me is that they start out as tiny little turtles that run like hell from the beach and swim as fast as they can. Most of them get eaten in the first couple days.

[startling]

If I were adrift at sea, I'd spend all that time doing something. Might as well be figuring out how to catch fish.