Coastguard praise quick thinking fishing crew after shark bite

HM Coastguard has praised the actions of a fishing crew after one of their crew was bitten by a shark onboard their vessel.


A man in his early twenties was bitten on the leg by a porbeagle shark after it was hauled onto the vessel 'Govenek of Ladram' in one of their fishing nets at around 8.15am on Sunday 13 May.

After sterilising and dressing the leg wound, the fishing crew alerted HM Coastguard by VHF radio asking for medical assistance.

The Coastguard search and rescue helicopter based at Newquay was sent to the 23m vessel, which was positioned 107nm west from Lands End.

Paramedic Winchman, Julian 'Bungi' Williams was lowered to the vessel and praised the quick actions of the crew for treating the wounds.  'Bungi' said: ‘The crew had done a really good job of dressing the wounds before we arrived which meant that we were able to save time getting the casualty to Treliske hospital.  We understand that the porbeagle shark was on the deck when the incident happened but as the crew were attempting to put it back in the sea one of the fisherman was bitten in the process.'

Alex Grieg, Senior Maritime Operations Officer for HM Coastguard said:  'Thanks to the efforts of the crew onboard and their swift actions in treating the wounds and contacting us, we were able to arrange the evacuation of the crew member promptly and get him to hospital.  We understand the fisherman is still in hospital and wish him a speedy recovery.'





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