A group of fishermen in Australia have carried out an extraordinary rescue after discovering an exhausted kangaroo swimming approximately three kilometres out at sea.

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The animal was spotted in Boston Bay, off the coast of Port Lincoln in South Australia, by a fishing crew who initially struggled to believe what they were seeing.

Diver and farmer Jake Murray was aboard the vessel when skipper Ryan Smith noticed something unusual moving through the water.

“He’s like, ‘I reckon there’s a roo in the water’, and we’re like, ‘Yeah, sure. All right, Ryan, sure,'” Murray told ABC News.

“So we doubled back to check it out and yeah — it was a bloody roo in the water!”

Sure enough, a male kangaroo was struggling in the middle of the bay, an estimated three kilometres from the nearest shore.

With no indication of how long the animal had been swimming, the crew quickly realised it needed assistance.

Fortunately, their boat was equipped with a sea door, which could be lowered to provide easier access to the water.

Rather than attempting to lift the kangaroo over the side of the vessel, the fishermen were able to bring it aboard through the opening.

“The sea door basically comes down to essentially the water level,” Murray explained.

“So we we’re able to comfortably get under his arms, bring him on board and just hold him there.”

Once safely aboard, Murray took responsibility for keeping the exhausted animal calm during the journey back to land.

Although kangaroos are powerful animals capable of delivering dangerous kicks, the rescued male appeared to have little energy left after its ordeal.

Murray carefully held the kangaroo against his body, supporting it while keeping its powerful hind legs under control.

“Just hanging on to him, just controlling his legs, because they’re quite mighty and powerful,” he explained. “He’s obviously been swimming around for a while … it was pretty knackered, pretty waterlogged.

“Honestly, I was just kind of cradling him there for a while and it was almost like he was having a little nap.”

Despite being accustomed to handling wildlife through his work as a farmer and diver, Murray admitted the encounter was unlike anything he had experienced before.

Kangaroos are occasionally seen in shallow coastal waters, but finding one so far offshore was completely unexpected.

The rescue was particularly memorable for another member of the crew, Miguel Villarroel, a diver originally from the Galapagos Islands.

Although Villarroel had already spent some time living in Australia, he had never previously encountered a kangaroo.

His first sighting turned out to be considerably more unusual than anyone could have anticipated.

“He’s been in the country for a while now, but that’s the first time he’s ever seen a kangaroo,” Murray said.

“He’s like, ‘Oh, does this happen a fair bit?’

“I’m like, ‘Mate, I’ve never seen this in my life.’

“I’ve seen them around the area, like in shallows, at surf beaches — but in the middle of the bay, yeah, never in my wildest dreams would I think I’d see that.”

Exactly how the kangaroo ended up several kilometres from land remains a mystery.

Murray suggested that the unusually calm conditions might have played a role, with the animal potentially becoming caught in the tide while swimming.

“Maybe because it was so calm and flat … maybe [it was] caught in the tide, you just don’t know,” he said.

However, he also offered a more light-hearted explanation for the kangaroo’s unexpected adventure.

“Probably a teenager trying to impress his mates, going for a swim,” Murray said. “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.”

Whatever caused the animal to venture so far from shore, the fishermen’s timely intervention meant its ordeal had a happy ending.

After bringing the kangaroo back to land, the crew allowed it to recover on the beach.

The exhausted animal spent some time resting on the sand before eventually getting back onto its feet. It then hopped away, apparently ready to put its unexpected journey behind it.

Featured image credit: Instagram/Jake Murray/Van Doorn Fishing via ABC Eyre Peninsula (screenshots)