Man bitten by shark to undergo surgery

A man who sustained a shark bite while on a boat off the coast of County Waterford is scheduled for surgery.

Sebastian Achim was part of a research crew tagging sharks near Ram Head, Ardmore, when the incident occurred on Tuesday. The experienced fishermen on the crew were catching, tagging, and then releasing the sharks back into the sea.

Later that day, Achim caught another shark and was bitten on the leg after pulling it onto the boat. Speaking on RTÉ Radio One's *Morning Ireland* programme, Achim explained that the plan was to hook, tag, and release the shark. He stated that he easily removed the hook and maintained a safe distance, at least half a metre from its tail.

"I was just admiring the fish itself, when he just jumped in a millisecond and grabbed into my calf," Achim recounted. "I cannot say if it was a deliberate attack or it was not a deliberate attack, but the fish is in the right anyway, we took it out of the water and the fish was in his survival instinct," he added. "We just threw him back in the water, we didn't manage to tag him. We didn't want the fish to be more panicked than that."

Achim managed to tie a rope above his leg wound, and the crew contacted emergency services. Following the alarm, multiple agencies, including the Irish Coast Guard Helicopter Rescue 117, Ballycotton RNLI, and Youghal RNLI, responded. Achim was winched aboard the Irish Coast Guard's helicopter, Rescue 117, and transported to Cork University Hospital.

Achim reported significant blood loss and repeatedly lost consciousness while awaiting emergency services. "I didn't think I was going to make it," he said, noting that he and the crew were three hours from shore at the time. Doctors informed him that he is missing some tissue and skin and will require skin grafts.

While he initially felt no pain from the bite, Achim stated that the pain has been constant since arriving at the hospital. "When I got to the hospital I realised the gravity, my adrenaline rush washed off." He described the incident as "scary," but added, "I was not scared for myself - I was just thinking about my girlfriend, trying to hold myself strong so I didn't scare the crew as well. I was trying to keep myself awake so I didn't make anyone panic, it doesn't matter the gravity of the problem, it matters for me that the people around do not suffer because of my actions."

Blue sharks are long-distance migrants typically found in Irish waters from June to October, where they are caught and released by recreational anglers, according to Inland Fisheries Ireland. They are considered one of Ireland's largest and most valuable marine sport fishes.

Jack Kelly, a marine biologist and cinematographer in County Galway, told BBC Radio Ulster's *Good Morning Ulster* that blue sharks are "common all around Britain and Ireland during the summer months" and can be found "in numbers." Kelly described all sharks as "so curious in an amazing way."

"If a shark approaches anything, really, it's not like they have fingers to be able to investigate to see what it is. So they have this amazing curiosity about them where they'll come, they'll just kind of circle and try to check out what's going on," he explained. "You'll often get them actually just really staring at you. For me, when I'm underwater they might give the camera a bump just to see what it is, so their curiosity for me is definitely something that stands out."

Blue sharks can grow to over three metres in length and feed in open water on fish, squid, smaller sharks, and seabirds. Their conservation status is listed as near threatened on the Irish Red List for cartilaginous fish and by the IUCN Red List, according to Inland Fisheries Ireland. The Marine Sportfishing Tagging Programme tagged 19,309 blue sharks off the coast of Ireland between 1970 and 2013, representing 45% of all tagged fish since the program's inception.

This is not the first instance of people being bitten by sharks off the Irish coast. In 2018, a Belfast man angling caught a blue shark and was bitten while bringing it onto a boat, sustaining serious injuries to his lower arm in an incident where he was assisted by Crosshaven RNLI in Cork.