Overview
- A man sustained a serious calf injury when a shark bit him on a small pleasure fishing boat south of Ardmore and was winched into the Irish Coast Guard helicopter for emergency transfer to Cork University Hospital on Tuesday.
- Rescue 117 from Waterford and RNLI crews from Ballycotton and Youghal coordinated the response and the remaining four people on the five-metre vessel returned safely to Dungarvan without injury.
- The injured man has been identified as content creator Sebastian Achim, who said he was catch-and-release angling for a blue shark when the fish lunged at his leg; RNLI coxswain Eolan Walsh said the shark may have been brought on board before it bit him.
- Hospital staff treated the wound and medically stabilized Achim, with multiple outlets reporting the leg was saved but further surgical operations will be needed.
- Local responders described the event as rare, noting few comparable incidents locally in decades of volunteering, and they urged proper safety gear, reliable communications and vessel suitability for offshore fishing.