Canadian fishermen rescue arctic fox stranded at sea on an iceberg.

An Arctic fox generally isn't part of a crab fishing boat's bycatch, but one crew from southern Labrador managed just that last week.

Alan Russell of St. Lewis said his ship was about seven kilometres offshore when they spotted something on a nearby iceberg.

"We seen something on the ice. Wasn't sure what it was," Russell told CBC's Labrador Morning. "So we got up closer to it. It was a little fox, Arctic fox. And he wasn't very big. He was soaking wet, and the gulls was trying to pick at him."

Not feeling so sly

The crew tried to pull him from the mushroom-shaped iceberg tip, but the skittish fox wouldn't let them close. So they used the boat to knock the ice pan down and fished the fox from the water with a net.

"He was in pretty hard shape because it was so cold in the water," said Russell.

More importantly, they were able to get him to eat: Vienna sausages.

Russell said he has never seen an animal like that so far from shore. He figures the fox was probably looking for food on solid sea ice and then got caught when it broke up.

"He probably only had another day or so on the ice floe, or it would have foundered," he said. "And the way that the wind was, the ice was probably never going to go back into land. He's a pretty lucky guy."

Once dried out, fed and warm, the fox became downright friendly.  He's been running around the fishing village ever since.