{"id":592082,"date":"2026-08-13T14:12:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T14:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/592082\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T14:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T14:12:15","slug":"a-beautiful-animal-shark-fishing-needs-more-regulation-and-training-expert-says-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/592082\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A beautiful animal\u2019: Shark fishing needs more regulation and training, expert says \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Irish Wildlife Trust<\/a> has moved to reassure the public that most sharks are \u201cnot aggressive\u201d and there have been no documented unprovoked attacks on humans in Irish waters. <\/p>\n

The trust was speaking following an incident on Tuesday in which an angler was bitten by a blue shark on the deck of a boat <\/a>off the coast of Co Waterford.<\/p>\n

Experienced angler Sebastian Achim was fishing with four others about 6.5km from Ram Head, Ardmore, when a shark he had caught lunged for him on the deck and bit his calf, causing significant injuries.<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Irish Times, Achim said no one was at fault for the incident, especially not the shark, and hoped the incident raised awareness.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could happen to anyone,\u201d he said. \u201cMyself, I will stop fishing for [blue shark], because I got my lesson. I got my shark anyway … but I\u2019m not telling anyone to stop, just to be more careful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blue sharks can grow to 3m in length and are present in Irish waters between June and October, according to Inland Fisheries Ireland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Grace Carr, marine advocacy officer for the Irish Wildlife Trust, said shark bites were \u201cnot common at all\u201d in Ireland and \u201cthere\u2019s no documented shark bites happening whenever someone\u2019s in the water swimming … [or] any sort of unprovoked attack\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said there were about 35 species of sharks in Irish waters.<\/p>\n

She described the pelagic blue sharks as \u201cabsolutely stunning\u201d, with the \u201cbeautiful blue colour\u201d on their topside.<\/p>\n

She said they were \u201cvery slender … like a torpedo shape\u201d.<\/p>\n

A former scuba diving instructor, she has swum with blue sharks and intends to do so again next week.<\/p>\n

She said the shark involved in Tuesday\u2019s incident had been put in a \u201cvery stressful situation\u201d by being caught and taken out of the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think anybody would react that way. Any animal and any human would react that way,\u201d Carr said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the shark\u2019s fault … they\u2019re a beautiful animal to see in the water and their temperament is very non-aggressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said recreational shark fishing was legal in Ireland, mostly on a catch-and-release basis. She added that this did not apply with basking sharks, which are protected.<\/p>\n

Carr said she had met anglers who were \u201cvery conservation-minded\u201d and \u201cdo care about the animals and their safety\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, she said: \u201cThat\u2019s not everybody. There\u2019s going to be anglers out there that don\u2019t care and aren\u2019t being responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said shark fishing should be \u201cmore strictly regulated\u201d and people planning to do it should have to go through \u201cspecial training\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, some of the photos that you see of people holding the sharks, they\u2019re not actually supporting the animal\u2019s body … you really need to hold it the correct way to support its organs. Otherwise, you\u2019re going to be causing damage,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Carr also said there was \u201ca lot of post-release mortality, with no way of knowing if the animal will have suffered injuries or if it will then die\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said there were some \u201cgreat operators out there\u201d who \u201creally care\u201d about the animals and work with marine biologists<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to definitely go with an operator who has that experience and that knowledge and that care.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added anglers, \u201cthe ones that are responsible and that have done training\u201d, have contributed \u201ca lot\u201d to research in Irish waters.<\/p>\n

She gave the example of Inland Fisheries Ireland\u2019s marine sport fish tagging programme and said anglers had to be trained for this and learn to properly tag and release an animal safely.<\/p>\n

She said programmes such as this gave information and data on animals, which she said could help for conservation \u201cso we can identify where there\u2019s really important areas for sharks\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said it had been noted globally that there were several important shark and ray areas in Irish waters.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnglers do help with scientific research,\u201d she said, but added \u201cpeople should have to go through the training and licensing procedure\u201d.<\/p>\n

Blue sharks are near threatened in the North Atlantic, she said. Despite this, there are \u201ca lot\u201d of blue sharks in Irish waters.<\/p>\n

She said the decline in numbers was \u201cdefinitely a concern\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said if people did not have sufficient knowledge and expertise, they might not realise they have caught a critically endangered species.<\/p>\n

The Irish Wildlife Trust is advocating for marine protected areas where activities would be restricted to certain levels so \u201canimals have this place of refuge and habitats can grow healthy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Carr added that the Government needed to look at introducing regulations on recreational activities such as shark fishing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re going to be handling wild animals … people should be trained appropriately for the safety of the animal and for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish Wildlife Trust has moved to reassure the public that most sharks are \u201cnot aggressive\u201d and there have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":["post-592082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592082","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=592082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}