Real 'Life of Pi castaway' survives 16 months adrift on boat

A real-life castaway has claimed to have survived for 16 months adrift on boat by catching turtles and birds with his bare hands.

The emaciated man had long hair and a beard, and claimed to have been drifting in the 7.3-metre-fibreglass boat since setting out from Mexico, more than 12,500 km away, for El Salvador on September 2012, the Guardian reported.

The man, dressed only in a ragged pair of underpants, told his rescuers on Thursday that his companion had died at sea several months ago.

The man had said his name was Jose Ivan, but as he speaks only Spanish, further details are sketchy. There was no fishing equipment on the propeller-less-boat, but a turtle was found inside when it washed up on isolated Ebon atoll, part of the Marshall Islands archipelago.