A fisherman was airlifted to hospital after being bitten on the leg by a shark landed on a boat off the Cornish coast.
Crewmates of Max Berryman, 21, tended to his wounds before a coastguard helicopter winched him off the vessel and back to the mainland.
The porbeagle shark was hauled up by the crew of the Govenek of Ladram in a net more than 100 miles off Land’s End.
Crew members sterilised and dressed Berryman’s wounds and called for help. The helicopter flew from Newquay in north Cornwall to the 23-metre vessel on Sunday morning and Julian “Bungi” Williams, a paramedic, was lowered on to the boat to attend to Berryman before the fisherman was winched up to the helicopter.
#HMCoastguard praise actions of fishing crew after one of them was bitten by a #Porbeagle shark onboard their vessel 107nm west of #LandsEnd. Crew were attempting to put it back in the sea when it happened #allsafe #999Coastguard #savinglives https://t.co/qjk7WPvOZi pic.twitter.com/LwLROCTuar
— Maritime&Coastguard (@MCA_media) May 14, 2018
Berryman, from Penzance, was taken to the Royal Cornwall hospital in Truro.
Williams 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 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, a 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.”
Berryman has been a crew member of the Govenek for about two years. A year ago, he was pictured with a porbeagle shark that had also got caught in the nets.
Tony Fitzsimmons, a photographer who knows the boat and crew, said they would have been fishing for hake rather than shark. “It is just one of those freak things that have happened,” he said.
“This particular crew were a great team, Max was the youngest, but they were all a fantastic bunch and knew what they were doing. They all had each other’s backs.”
According to the Marine Conservation Society, a porbeagle shark is usually 2-3 metres long. The animal is found in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean and its status is “vulnerable”.
