SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Sit right back and you hear a tale - a tale of a fateful trip, but with a happy ending. A film crew for the Animal Planet show "River Monsters" was searching for the Queensland grouper fish off a remote island north of Australia when they saw an abandoned beer cooler on some rocks. They were joking about castaways when a nearly naked man ran out of a cave and plunged into the ocean to swim toward their boat. They picked him up and learned he was a fisherman whose boat had floated off when he was searching for oysters. He grew dehydrated and weak during two days in Australia's summer heat. He told them he was just saying prayers and preparing for the worst. The "River Monsters" crew gave him water, food and a place to sleep, and the castaway fisherman returned home. He told the film crew he was going to start smoking again so that he'd always carry a lighter he could use to start a fire and boil water.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GILLIGAN'S ISLAND THEME")
BOWLING FOR SOUP: There's Gilligan, the skipper too, the billionaire and his wife, the movie star, the professor and Mary Ann, here on Gilligan's Island. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
