New Zealand fisherman pulls 18-month-old baby from sea alive in 'freakish miracle'

www.telegraph.co.uk ^ | 5 November 2018 • 1:10pm | Jonathan Pearlman, Sydney

[Red Badger]

A fisherman in New Zealand pulled an 18-month-old baby from the sea alive after the boy went missing from his campsite where he was staying with his parents.

Gus Hutt, who was fishing at a beach near a holiday park in the Bay of Plenty region of the North Island, thought he was pulling a doll from the ocean before realising he had rescued a baby when the boy “let out a little squeak”.

He said he was checking his lines at about 7.15am late last month when he spotted the baby float past.

"His face looked like porcelain with his short hair wetted down," Mr Hutt told the Whakatāne Beacon. "But then he let out a little squeak and I thought, 'oh God, this is a baby and it's alive'. He was floating at a steady pace with a rip in the water. If I hadn't been there, or if I had just been a minute later I wouldn't have seen him.”

[yield 2 the right]

If it grows up and starts freeing peoples and parting rivers/lakes/reeds/seas watch out....;>)

[SunkenCiv]

I hope the baby's okay!

[jacknhoo]

That’s divine intervention if I ever read it.

[Mat_Helm]

Yes, praise God and His mercy and get that young man a surf board really soon!

[pepsi_junkie]

Just the thing for when you’re fishing for babies! Good thing the baby wasn’t under the length limit, would have been a bummer of an ending if he’d had to throw it back in.

[moovova]

"Man, that's a shame when folks be throwing away a perfectly good white boy like dat."

[sportutegrl]

This is like the plot of The Light Between Oceans.

[EdnaMode]

Wow. Great story.

[salmon76]

How about Jonah Moses?

[Larry Lucido]

"Is anybody here a marine pediatrician?"

[Larry Lucido]

30

[SaveFerris]

That was pretty funny.....made me laugh out loud when I saw it.

[stockpirate]

I wonder if the baby had taken classes on rolling on his back if he fell in water. They teach very young babies hoe.

[Albion Wilde]

God saved the baby and he, IMO, has a purpose in life.

My first thought, as well!

[Albion Wilde]

If it grows up and starts freeing peoples and parting rivers/lakes/reeds/seas watch out....;>)

LOLs!

[steve86]

Good point.

[Titus-Maximus]

Story doesn’t pass the smell test.

[Sequoyah101]

More great parenting.

[Red Badger]

Well, I imagine his diaper needed changing...................