Three teenage boys have been rescued after drifting in the Pacific Ocean for 50 days in a small boat.

A New Zealand fishing boat, sailing in an area it would not normally be, performed the miraculous rescue.

The boys had started drinking seawater and had eaten just one seagull during their ordeal.

Samuel Perez and Filo Filo, both 15 and Edward Nasau, 14, had disappeared from Atafu Atoll, north of Samoa and part of the New Zealand territory of Tokelau, on October 5.

An extensive RNZAF Orion search failed to find any trace of them.