Scientists back Mexican castaway's story of survival

The castaway who washed up on a remote Pacific atoll claiming that he had been adrift for 13 months, has now scientists believing in his tale.

Jose Salvador Alvarenga, 37, had said that he had set sail from Mexico to fish for shark in December 2012, and had not seen land since.

Nikolai Maximenko and Jan Hafner from the University of Hawaii used their computer modelling systems to place 16 electronic tracers into the ocean from almost the same spot, and at the same time that Alvarenga left land, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

They charted the tracers' positions, as part of their research into ocean currents at the International Pacific Research Centre.

Some of the tracers drifted into currents that led them to overshoot the Marshall Islands, where Alvarenga washed up.