Reassurance for local swimmers after angler bitten by shark pulled aboard boat

Swimmers along the south coast have been reassured following an incident on Tuesday which saw an angler being airlifted to Cork University Hospital (CUH) after sustaining a shark bite.

The incident, which involved shark fishing at sea, resulted in assistance being required from the Cork-based Ballycotton and Youghal Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) stations.

At 4.16pm on Tuesday, Ballycotton RNLI was requested to launch by Dublin Coast Guard to assist a pleasure craft with five people on board, about four miles off Ram Head in Ardmore.

Sebastian Achim was fishing with three other people, who were "experienced fishermen" about  four miles south of Ram Head.

It is understood that Sebastian had been angling for blue shark, his first time doing so, when he caught one and pulled it aboard the craft, and he was subsequently bitten on the lower leg.

Mr Achim said it "jumped and just grabbed onto my cast."

"I cannot say if it's a deliberate attack or it's not a deliberate attack," Mr Achim told RTÉ's Morning Ireland this morning.

"The fish was in his survival instinct, and we just threw him back in the water; we did not manage to tag him. We just didn't want the fish to be more panicked than that, and myself, I just got injured, and we just focused on that.

"The moment of the bite, we didn't realise what actually happened. I saw my leg just started bleeding properly, and I just stayed calm because there was no reason to panic," Mr Achim added.

He took a rope and tied it above his wounds before the other men on the boat called emergency services as they knew it was a serious injury.

"Ten minutes after that, I was still trying somehow to stop my bleeding, and I just passed out. I was just bleeding so much constantly. Even after applying the Garo, I thought I'm not going to make it.

"But then I woke up again. I had passed out from the blood loss, and when I woke up, the helicopter was above the boat and was making everything wet.

"I could not stand, and every time I would try to stand, I would pass out, and even on the videos, when they lift me up, I was just passed out," Mr Achim added.

He said he was "very lucky" to get back to the hospital and did not think he would have made it because he had lost "too much blood."

"I was in shock, and I didn't feel pain until I got to the hospital and realised the gravity of the situation. My adrenaline rush washed off," Mr Achim said.

The 27-year-old said he will need surgery now and doctors will need to rebuild as he is missing tissue from the attack.

Ballycotton RNLI, Youghal RNLI, and Irish Coast Guard Helicopter Rescue 117 attended the scene, and the casualty was winched from the vessel and transferred for emergency evacuation to CUH.

The remaining members of the group did not require assistance, and the casualty vessel subsequently returned safely to Dungarvan.

Kevin Flannery, director of Dingle Oceanworld Aquarium, told The Echo that blue sharks are generally “of absolutely no danger to humans”.

Mr Flannery said he had never heard of a blue shark attacking a human in the water, and that the species generally stays away from beaches and coastlines, which has reassured swimmers along the south coast that there is no immediate concern from the blue shark, which is common in Irish waters. 

In 2018, a man was seriously injured off the coast of Cork, after being bitten by a blue shark which he had also caught while angling.