hree Mexicans who spent nine months lost at sea are to be paid at least $3. 8 million to turn their story into a movie. The men, who hail from San Blas, were feared lost when their 25-foot (8-meter) fiberglass boat ran into trouble off Mexico's Pacific coast last November.

Scientists in Maine are cautioning fishermen against catching a "robo-trout. " Experts from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife have tagged 75 trout with transmitters, in an effort to learn more about their life and activity in Moosehead Lake.

Three Mexican shark fishermen claim that they survived more than nine months at sea in a small boat by eating raw fish and drinking rain water as they drifted thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean. The fishermen said they left their home town of San Blas on Mexico's Pacific coast last October to fish for sharks. But due to some mechanical problems at the boat and adverse winds they were blown towards the sea.

An animal rights activist in a small English fishing village prevented a contest in which fishermen hurl giant dead eel at each other by sending a threatening e-mail. The activist said he would film the contest to attract negative media attention to the village's annual tradition of "conger cuddling. " Crowds have gathered in the village of Lyme Reggis every year for more than three decades to watch two teams of fisherman stand on wooden platforms and swing 25-pound dead eel at each other. The object of a conger cuddling match is to knock the opposing team off the platform.

Hungary's authorities are hoping that a marketing ploy aimed towards those with an interest in illicit sex will get today's young people to visit the Lake Balaton resort. The tourism authority is sending out e-mails with a link leading viewers to a short cartoon that features a couple having extramarital sex on a boat. By clicking on http://abalatoninyar. fw. hu/, prospective visitors will see a cartoon of a young blond woman doing the deed with a married on a fishing boat on the lake.