This is the moment a group of sunseekers had to rescue a stranded dog after spotting it paddling in the Atlantic Ocean.
Jakob Dutoit had taken his friends out for a ride on his boat off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Florida when they spotted a white dog alone in the open water.
Footage shows one of the people on board, Dylan Berian, quickly jump in to the water to grab the Jack Russell-type dog and pull him to safety.
People on the boat can be heard shouting ‘quick grab him’ and ‘get him in the boat’ as they realize what is going on.
The terrified animal is seen shaking the water off its coat as others onboard try to calm the animal down.
Bryn Crowell, who was on the boat, filmed the incident and uploaded the video to TikTok, writing: ‘My friends and I saved a dog we found swimming alone in the middle of the ocean.’
A group of sunseekers out on the Atlantic Ocean got an unexpected visitor when they had to rescue a stranded dog after seeing it swimming past them near Fort Lauderdale, Florida
They later discovered that the dog, named Zuko, had been out at sea on another boat when he apparently jumped overboard without his owners realizing.
After rescuing the dog, they went back to shore to contact the pet’s owners.
Zucko was luckily wearing a collar, and they were able to locate the owners who were 15 minutes up the coast.
Thanking Jakob for rescuing the animal, the dog’s owner said: ‘Zuko is a puppy and still very new to being on a boat (hence the excitement).
‘He was hopping around in the back of the boat “biting” the waves that were passing by and I guess in one of those moments he must’ve jumped a little too high and jumped overboard.
‘Once we noticed he was missing we all searched the boat thinking he was hiding in one of the rooms with his bone (but we obviously couldn’t).
Footage shows one of the people on board, Dylan Berian, quickly jump in to the water to grab the dog and pull him to safely
‘So then we kept going up and down where we had travelled trying to retrace our path but we had no luck… after seven mental breakdowns you guys called us and it was a miracle.
‘He’s never done anything like this before and I’m so happy you guys found him.’
The video has been watched almost 2 million times, but some viewers initially suggested the video was not all it seemed.
‘This was staged,’ one person claimed. ‘The dog would’ve been too tired to stand if he were “found” there even 15 minutes after he was supposedly abandoned.’
They later discovered that the dog, named Zuko, had been out at sea on another boat when he apparently jumped overboard without his owners realising
Another was more sympathetic, writing: ‘Right place at the right time. Thank goodness.’
But Bryn responded saying the video was real, commenting: ‘The owners were crying and thankful he was safe. [It] was 100% not staged and we were happy we saw him and were able to save him.’
‘We called the number on his tag, went 20 minutes to the next inlet, and returned him.’