Man rescued at sea by unlikely hero.

A man lost at sea for almost FOUR MONTHS has told of his amazing rescue story. And the hero of this story is one you may not expect! (SPOILER: it's not a mermaid.)

The drama unfolded off the tiny island nation of Kiribati (it's kind of in between Australia and Hawaii). Local policeman and vowel-hoarder Toakai Teitoi headed off on what was meant to be a two hour boat trip to a neighbouring island. Long story short - he didn't quite get where he wanted, and 2 hours in a boat became 106 days! I hope he had something to read.

On Day 106 though, Toakai's luck changed. Curled up at the bottom of the boat under some shade, he heard a scratching and bumping against the hull. Peering overboard he saw a six foot shark circling the boat. When the shark had his attention it swam off.

This is what happened next, in Toakai's own words:

"He was guiding me to a fishing boat. I looked up and there was the stern of a ship and I could see crew with binoculars looking at me. Of course I was able to wave frantically at them and they came and picked me up. If that shark hadn't nudged me awake the crew of the boat might have thought I wasn't in trouble and might have carried on sailing past me."

According to Toakai, that shark saved his life!!

In 2012, approximately 200,000 sharks are killed by humans ... every day! That would mean that while Toakai was adrift on his boat, 21 MILLION sharks were killed. And yet this shark rescued him. That's a pretty forgiving shark!

A major contributor to the death-toll is the slaughter of sharks for their fins as part of the shark-fin soup industry. This fact about shark-finning really shook me up: all 14 shark species most common in the shark fin trade are now at risk of extinction.

If that's not bad enough, the Western Australian government is planning to shoot endangered sharks that swim too close to the shore. Under their plan, instead of being rescued by a shark, Toakai may have tried to shoot it!

I guess the simple point to make here is this: A shark saved a man's life, you can return the favour. Send a pre-written letter to the WA premier letting him know what you think of his plan. Then help other sharks by raising awareness of shark-finning amongst your buds.

Because you never know when you might need some help from a shark yourself ;)

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