{"id":591252,"date":"2026-08-12T19:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T19:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/591252\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T19:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T19:48:10","slug":"waterford-shark-bite-victim-scared-for-his-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/591252\/","title":{"rendered":"Waterford shark bite victim ‘scared for his life’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man recovering in hospital after being bitten by a shark on a vessel off the coast of Co Waterford has said that he is okay and hopes to recover “quickly”.<\/p>\n

Sebastian Achim was angling for sharks on board a small vessel south of Ardmore when the incident happened at 4.15pm yesterday.<\/p>\n

“We went off fishing for sharks along the coast of Co Waterford,” Mr Achim told ‘All About Cork with Paul Byrne’, adding that when he landed what was his first-ever Blue Shark, it “lunged” at him.<\/p>\n

“I finally managed to land my first Blue Shark and while I was admiring the catch, the catch decided to lunge at my leg and grab my calf,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It managed to rip part of my calf and do damage that we required special services for.”<\/p>\n

Mr Achim insisted he was okay however, and hopes his recovery will be quick.<\/p>\n

“I was just scared of it for my life at some point during it,” he said.<\/p>\n

He added: “I was pretty calm. I’m a pretty calm person. I was just thinking that I want to get home, hoping to get home safe.”<\/p>\n

Asked if he thought he would not make it, he said: “There was moments.”<\/p>\n

Watch: Man bitten by shark off Waterford coast recalls ordeal<\/p>\n

\n

The Irish Coast Guard was alerted to the incident south of Ardmore yesterday and dispatched the Rescue 117 helicopter to the scene.<\/p>\n

In a statement, they said: “The Coast Guard’s Waterford based helicopter, Rescue 117, was tasked to the scene, as well as the Ballycotton RNLI all weather lifeboat and the Youghal RNLI inshore lifeboat.<\/p>\n

“The man was winched on board… Rescue 117 and taken to Cork University Hospital and handed over into the care of the HSE.”<\/p>\n

Ballycotton RNLI said it was requested to launch by Dublin Coast Guard to assist a five-metre “pleasure craft” with five people on board near Ram Head in Ardmore, following a report of a person being bitten by a shark.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson said its lifeboat and Youghal RNLI remained on standby while the man was winched from the vessel by Rescue 117.<\/p>\n

“The remaining members of the group did not require assistance, and the casualty vessel subsequently returned safely to Dungarvan. Both lifeboats were then stood down,” Ballycotton RNLI said.<\/p>\n

Warning: Graphic images of shark bite injuries follow at bottom of story<\/p>\n

Coxswain on duty, Eolan Walsh, said this was a “well-coordinated” multi-agency response involving Ballycotton RNLI, Youghal RNLI and Rescue 117 working together to ensure that the casualty received urgent medical assistance.<\/p>\n

Mr Walsh said it was possible that the shark had been brought on board the fishing boat when the man was bitten.<\/p>\n

“I believe they were fishing and they possibly brought the shark on board the boat and obviously, the shark bit,” he said.<\/p>\n

Speaking on RT\u00c9’s Drivetime programme, he said that there was no reason for swimmers to fear similar attacks.<\/p>\n

“It wasn’t somebody swimming who was attacked. There’s nothing to be afraid of there,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Walsh added that it was the first time he had ever been called out to a shark attack.<\/p>\n

“Not in the 30 years I’ve been volunteering have I ever heard of this,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Sebastian Achim says that the Blue Shark ‘lunged’ at him after it was caught<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Rescue services transported Sebastian Achim to hospital from the vessel off the coast of Co Waterford<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Mr Achim suffered serious injuries to his calf<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man recovering in hospital after being bitten by a shark on a vessel off the coast of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-591252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}