A Tired Iguana Stranded Four Miles at Sea Catches a Ride Back to Shore With a Compassionate Kayaker

A really affable guy named Steve of Key West Kayak Fishing was out in the water about four mile from shore when he came across a very tired iguana who swam over to his rig, and after a few cautious moments and some encouraging words, jumped aboard to rest awhile. Concerned, the compassionate kayaker decided that he’d give the wayward lizard a ride back to shore. Steve somehow convinced the iguana to move over to a safer spot on the cooler and away they went. Steve chatted with the iguana the whole way, but when a group of mangroves were in sight, the lizard jumped off the boat and climbed up a tree.

Most likely, because of the King tides that are occurring it got caught in one of the swift outgoing tides and got pushed out to sea. I was just inside the reef so it was close to four miles from land. Most likely it would have died out there as the current that far out would most likely push it East with very little chance of coming back inshore. But you never know and it could be its normal daily swim back and forth between Cuba and the US. Regardless, it was pretty cool see it trust me enough (versus dying of course) to swim toward the kayak and hop on.