Sharks are not all that uncommon in Irish waters, in fact certain species are quite abundant on the far west coast of the British Isles. That doesn’t mean there’s that much of a threat though - plenty of shark species are pretty harmless and the chance of an attack is extremely rare in this corner of the world. They can happen however, they’re a wild and unpredictable animal that can be provoked after all. On Saturday evening, a fisherman from Belfast sustained very bad injuries to his arm, after being bitten by a Blue Shark.
Blue Shark numbers vary in Ireland throughout the year, but notoriously visit the country during the late Summer period as fish and squid species thrive, providing them with an easy meal. The Blue Shark is a very calm and gentle species of shark, virtually never attacking anything other than their own food. In fact, data suggests that there have only ever been 13 incidents of a Blue Shark’s aggression towards a human, that’s for entire world history. That’s an incredibly low number making it a very unlikely incident indeed. However, four of these attacks have ended in a fatality, proving that they’re still not an animal to be messed with and can get violent if they feel they need to.
They’ll usually grow to be around seven feet long, so they certainly have a presence that’s bigger than most people.
The man involved was part of an angling crew, fishing in seas near the city of Cork at the time. Reports suggest that the team aboard the Deora De had tried to catch the shark and were attempting to bring it on board the ship when they lost control and the shark started attacking - grabbing hold of the victim's arm. Blue sharks have pretty sharp teeth and once they’ve latched onto something you’ll struggle to get it off. It’s reported that once the crew had released the man from the creature's jaws, he had received pretty serious injuries to his lower arm. The crew attempted first aid on the boat whilst the RNLI came to the scene where they then took him to hospital.
The RNLI insist that no one is in danger of being attacked by a shark in Ireland and this incident was more due to the attempt to catch the animal, rather than any aggressive behaviour. The man is still recovering in hospital but is believed to be well.
