A young kangaroo found itself in an unlikely place: about three kilometres offshore in South Australia’s Boston Bay. Luckily, the crew of a passing dive boat spotted it and turned back to help.
Skipper Ryan Smith was the first to notice something in the water. Diver Jake Murray recalled the crew’s initial disbelief: “He’s like, ‘I reckon there’s a roo in the water,’ and we’re like, ‘Yeah, sure. All right, Ryan, sure,'” Murray said. “So we doubled back to check it out and yeah—it was a bloody roo in the water!”
The sea was calm, and a door near the boat’s waterline let the crew reach the exhausted animal. Murray, who is also a farmer, carefully lifted the kangaroo aboard. He kept a gentle but secure hold on its powerful legs, and the little roo eventually fell asleep in his arms.
Among those aboard was Miguel Villarroel, a diver from Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands. The rescue was a first for Murray, too: “I’m like, ‘Mate, I’ve never seen this in my life,'” he recalled telling Villarroel.
No one knew how the kangaroo had ended up so far from shore. Murray offered a playful theory: “He must have had a big night and one of the boys put a dare on and he’s gone for a splash and put himself into mischief!”
Hours after the crew brought it aboard, the kangaroo was back on land, hopping away from the beach under its own strength.
