Fisherman Says He Survived 13 Months Lost At Sea, Officials Doubt Claims

When Jose Salvador Alvarenga set sail on a fishing trip from Mexico in 2012, he looked much younger than his 36 years. He was clean-shaven with closely-cropped hair and could barely pass for his country's legal drinking age of 18.

Alvarenga's boat washed up on the shores of the Marshall Islands-an archipelago between Hawaii and Australia-Thursday with him claiming to have drifted some 6,000 miles while being lost at sea for 13 months. Alvarenga emerged wearing a full beard, long hair and tattered clothes, now looking every bit of 37 years old. Alvarenga told the Spanish language television station Telemundo that he survived the ordeal by eating fish, small birds, sharks and drinking rain water.

"When there was nothing, I would eat nothing," Alvarenga said in the interview. "I would drink my own urine. I spent a lot of time without eating."

According to a report in the Telegraph, Alvarenga and a teenage fisherman named Ezekiel, sailed out from the coast of Mexico Dec. 21, 2012 to catch sharks when their motor failed and sent them aimlessly adrift into the Pacific Ocean. A subsequent storm reportedly blew them even farther off course. Alvarenga further claimed that his fellow fisherman Ezekiel was unable to stomach the bizarre diet and died of starvation one month after they were lost at sea.

"He couldn't keep the raw food down and he kept vomiting," Alvarenga continued. "I tried to get him to hold his nose and eat but he kept vomiting." Alvarenga said he then pushed the boy's body into the ocean. "What else could I do?"

But officials are questioning Alvarenga's account, noting that he seemed in far better health than would be expected for someone lost at sea for more than a year. Marshall Island official Gee Bing told the Associated Press he was skeptical of Alvarenga's clams.

"When we saw him, he was not really thin compared to other survivors in the past," Bing said. "I have some doubts."

While Alvarenga recovers in an area hospital, officials are trying to piece together his account, which they say is hard to imagine, but plausible.

"He has a story that can be verified," U.S. Ambassador Thomas Hart Armbruster said in an interview with NBC News. "And if what he's saying is true, he is one of the best survivalists around...after talking to him I don't have reason to doubt it."