Fishermen on Thin Ice

Five fishermen were rescued from an ice floe that was drifting out into the open sea in Kaliningrad Region. The fishermen were carried two kilometers (about a mile) before being located and saved by the Ministry of Emergency Services. They had been fishing in the Curonian Lagoon, near the town of Kashirskoye, when the ice broke and began to carry them away from land.

The Ministry of Emergency Services said that a similar situation in 1994 ended in the death of the lost-at-sea fishermen.

The day prior, seven people were rescued from ice floes on Lake Baikal, in Irkutsk Region. Two of the adrift citizens happily accepted the help of the rescue team, but the five remaining were hesitant to abandon the equipment they had brought with them and chose to stay on the floe until the equipment could be secured.