A Canadian vessel rescued a fisherman floating on a raft miles west of Vancouver Island this week. The man was one of two who had been missing from a Washington-based fishing boat.

The American boat, the Evening, left Grays Harbor in Washington on Oct. 12 and was due to return on Oct. 15. A U.S. Coast Guard search for the two men aboard was launched Tuesday and aborted Wednesday following an 8-hour search spanning 14,000 square miles.

On Thursday, however, a Canadian boat, the Ocean Sunset, found the Evening’s life raft floating about 46 miles west of Canada’s Vancouver Island, according to the Associated Press.

The man aboard the raft, who authorities have not named, was in stable condition on Thursday, the U.S. Coast Guard posted on X. The Canadian Coast Guard brought him to shore.

“I saw what looked like a life raft in the distance and ran inside and put the binoculars on him and then he shot off a flare,” Ryan Planes, one of the fishermen who rescued the missing mariner, told KING-TV.

His uncle John Planes, also aboard, told KING-TV, “We pulled him on board. He gave me a big hug and it was emotional. We made him breakfast. He drank three bottles of water. He was pretty hungry, poor guy.”

The missing man told them that he had been alone aboard the life raft for 13 days and had caught and eaten a salmon to survive after running out of food and water.

The second person aboard the Evening remains missing, and the U.S. Coast Guard continues to investigate the incident, the agency posted on X.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.