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A total 408 migrants, mainly Syrians, have been rescued after spending six days adrift on a boat in the Mediterranean, Spanish officials said Wednesday, according to AFP.

The boat carrying the migrants was intercepted by a Spanish oceanographic vessel on Tuesday about 150 nautical miles east of the Sicilian port of Augusta, said the Spanish National Research Council which operates the research vessel said.

The vessel, the Sarmiento de Gamboa, plucked 194 migrants from the ship, including 61 children and 54 women, and gave them water, juice, fruit, yogurt and blankets.

"They showed signs of dehydration but are otherwise in good health," its captain Maria Angeles Campos told the research council.

The remaining passengers were rescued by an Icelandic coast guard ship taking part in Triton, a European Union coastal patrol operation aimed at helping Italy cope with an influx of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from north Africa.

Operation Triton is supposed to replace "Mare Nostrum," the Italian navy's search-and-rescue mission.