Mozambique’s flipper-powered tube fisherman stuns Durban man

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Mozambique’s flipper-powered tube fisherman stuns Durban man

4:13 CAT | 29 Jun 2016

(Grant Campbell, Supplied to News24)

A Durban man has told of a bizarre sight while fishing in Mozambique, having spotted a man clad in flippers and sitting in an inner-tube almost 2km out to sea.

The man, whose identity remains unknown, is understood to have paddled himself out to sea to catch fish.

Grant Campbell said he was shocked to find the man so far from land. They were fishing off the coast of the country, some 500km north of Maputo.

“We caught some fish and we had been heading back we saw a spot on the horizon. I thought it was debris initially and it was actually this guy on a tube, one of the local guys, and we were 2km out to sea,” he said.

Campbell said that he drew closer to the man and saw he had flippers on his feet and had been fishing.

“He didn’t follow English well and I think he must have been Portuguese. We gave him some of the fish we had caught and some Energade that we had just to stock him up a bit. There was only about an hour of light left and he was still a long way from shore, it was likely that he would get back long after dark,” he said.

‘Nerve-wracking’

“He looked like he knew what he was doing and he appeared to be using the current, and I would say he is a veteran of the sea. It had been playing on my mind why he was so far out but then it could be because the fish stocks are depleted from all the Chinese fishing vessels,” Campbell added.

“You probably find there are less fish than what they were [before] so he probably has to head further out.”

He said that using only an inner tube would be too close to the water for comfort for him.

“There are definitely sharks out there… with my ass hanging into the sea in a tube would nerve-wracking. Next year when I go back I want to try and find him. He would have been catching food for his family,” he said.

Source: News 24