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According to US media reports, a pianist from a cruise ship who fell overboard was found by two fishermen about 32 km off the coast of California.
Grant Garrett and Sean Norton spotted a man in the water near Catalina Island on Friday. Authorities said he may have spent nine hours in the Pacific Ocean, according to CBS News, the BBC's US news partner.
The man, who has not been named, was taken to hospital in a stable condition, the US Coast Guard told the BBC, adding that it was investigating the incident.
Royal Caribbean has confirmed that the person rescued is an employee.
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The fishermen said the man told them he was the pianist on the 14-deck cruise ship Ovation of the Seas.
"He just told me, 'Thank you. I thought I was going to die,'" said one of the fishermen who rescued the pianist, Sean Norton.
The Coast Guard said fishermen pulled a conscious man from the water and handed him over to rescuers in Newport Beach, who confirmed that the rescued man was an employee of the Ovation of the Seas cruise ship.
Rescuers believe he may have fallen overboard around 2:30 a.m., about nine hours before he was spotted in the water.
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"It happened about 15 to 20 miles [24 to 32 kilometers] offshore, basically in the middle of the ocean," Newport Beach Rescue Battalion Chief Adam Yacenda told CBS.
Norton attributed the man's survival to unusually warm ocean temperatures.
“This year is a real super El Niño. This guy had been in the water for probably 10 hours and the water temperature was 76 degrees [about 24 degrees Celsius],” Norton said.
“In another year he definitely wouldn’t have survived,” the fisherman added.
The developing El Niño climate phenomenon is now the strongest on record, causing ocean temperatures to be about 3.05 degrees Celsius above average, according to scientists monitoring the Pacific Ocean.
A Royal Caribbean Group spokesman told the BBC: "We are providing support and assistance to our crew member during this difficult time. Out of respect for our employee's privacy, we are unable to provide additional information."
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