THE walls of water that devastated Asian shorelines served as reminders of the fragility of life, but yesterday new survivors emerged as a testament to human resilience.

The remarkable stories of people adrift beneath the tropical sun for days were told just as searchers gave up hope of finding further survivors of the tsunami and turned their full attention to getting food and water to the living.

Four Indonesians were discovered adrift in a boat that had been their home since the tsunami struck on Boxing Day. They were picked up several hundred miles from home off the remote Indian islands of Andaman and Nicobar, having been driven there by the giant waves when their engine broke down.

A 23-year-old woman from Indonesia's Aceh province was discovered in the water about 120 miles from home. A passing Malaysian tuna ship picked up Melawati, who had been clinging to a floating sago palm tree for at least five days. She had suffered leg injuries and was extremely weak, and yesterday was being treated on Malaysia's Penang island.

A more modest rescue effort was under way on Thailand's coast.

Two dolphins were trapped in a small lagoon created on Khao Lak when the tsunami swept them ashore. The animals, believed to be a female humpback dolphin and her three-year-old pup, were spotted by a man searching for his missing wife.

Rescuers took the dolphins to their hearts as hopes of finding more survivors in Thailand dwindled.

"That's why we hope we get them out. That would be the only survivor story. We need one," said Edwin Wiek, director of the Wildlife Friends of Thailand Rescue Centre.

There were also rays of hope on the Andaman and Nicobar islands as a tiny step towards normal life was taken with the reopening of schools.

"It feels like the first day of school - all new faces, new teachers," said 16-year-old Hari Krishna.

But that was only because his teachers and former classmates died when the tsunami submerged their remote island of Hut Bay.

On the island of Car Nicobar, the village of Malacca was reached and appeared to have been completely wiped out. The only structure still standing was a statue of independence leader Mahatma Gandhi.

Elsewhere on the islands, hundreds of fishermen protested outside the local fishery office after they were banned from going to sea or selling fish because of fears that the fish had been feeding on the dead.

India also drew condemnation from international aid groups for continuing to refuse access to most parts of the islands. The government has stood by its long-standing policy of restricting entry out of concerns for the security of a military air base as well as the protection of indigenous tribes.

US helicopters carrying aid donated by Singapore flew low over what appeared to be a fishing flotilla, off the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

Some boats were clearly damaged, while others appeared to have emerged from the disaster unscathed. But there was no sign of life at all.

The helicopters moved on to Karim Rajia, a Sumatran town that has an oil storage facility. Two huge tanks had been knocked off their concrete bases and sat lopsided on the sand, while thousands of smaller oil drums lay scattered about. It was unclear if any were leaking.

Helicopters dropped off 1,800 pounds of soup and biscuits in cartons stencilled "Our deepest condolences to the brothers and sisters in Aceh. May God be with them. Love from the teachers and students of Singapore."

Across the ocean in Sri Lanka, looting was reported. Cameras and mobile phones from a hotel, tables and chairs from homes, even a shotgun from a government office were among plundered items. Several arrests have been made.

"Villagers are plundering whatever they can get hold of," said MK Sugadadasa, a senior police officer in the devastated south.

In the north of the island, in territory occupied by the Tamil Tiger freedom fighters, a picture of the terrible conditions in the refugee camps was emerging. In the camp of Thiruvalluar, near Trincomalee, there are 2,875 people crammed into a school building.

They have one toilet between them and the school playing fields are filled with dug out holes, overflowing with stinking rubbish.

An outbreak of diarrhoea has hit the camp, putting 23 people into hospital. Others are suffering from rashes brought on, the camp co-ordinators believe, by the used clothes donated from well intentioned individuals. There is no medicine in the camp.

An aid worker called Perinpamoorthy Namatheran, 26, had seen the tsunami devastate the north of Sri Lanka. He had been on a ship packed with 300 people which lurched violently as the tsunami passed beneath it.

He saw the jetty they were due to land on disappear beneath the waves. "There is a lighthouse nearby," he said, "and all we could see was the light at the top - the rest was under water."

Mr Namatheran saw chairs and bottles of chilli floating in the water. "I realised these were objects from inside people's houses," he said.

In the low-lying Maldives islands, south of India, the desolate scene reminded US Marine Corps Major Max Andrews of war-torn cities in Iraq.

"I was in Fallujah last summer and saw the devastation and damage there," he said.

"But that was surgical and aimed at specific targets.

"Here it's total. Everything is gone."