A man who was bitten by a shark on a boat off the coast of County Waterford is due to undergo surgery.

Sebastian Achim was part of a crew tagging sharks for research off Ram Head, Ardmore, when the incident happened on Tuesday.

The crew, who were experienced fishermen, were catching the sharks, tagging them and then releasing them back into the sea.

Later in the day, Achim caught another shark and was bitten in the leg after pulling it into the boat.

Speaking to RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland, external programme, Achim said the plan was to hook the shark, tag it and release it.

He said he took the hook out of the shark easily and stayed a safe distance away, at least half a metre away from its tail.

“I was just admiring the fish itself, when he just jumped in a millisecond and grabbed into my calf,” Achim said.

“I cannot say if it was a deliberate attack or it was not a deliberate attack, but the fish is in the right anyway, we took it out of the water and the fish was in his survival instinct,” he said.

“We just threw him back in the water, we didn’t manage to tag him. We didn’t want the fish to be more panicked than that.”

Achim said he managed to tie a rope above his leg wound and the crew called emergency services.

After the alarm had been raised about the incident multiple agencies, including the Irish Coast Guard Helicopter Rescue 117, Ballycotton RNLI and Youghal RNLI had responded to the incident.

Achim was winched on board the Irish Coast Guard’s helicopter, Rescue 117 and taken to Cork University Hospital.

Achim said he lost a lot of blood and kept passing out while he waited for emergency services to reach the boat.

“I didn’t think I was going to make it,” he said, adding that he and the crew members were three hours from the shore at the time.

Achim said doctors have told him he is missing some tissue and skin and he will need skin grafts.

While he did not feel any pain when he first got bitten, Achim said the pain has been constant since he got to the hospital.

“When I got to the hospital I realised the gravity, my adrenaline rush washed off.”

He described the incident as “scary”, but added: “I was not scared for myself – I was just thinking about my girlfriend, trying to hold myself strong so I didn’t scare the crew as well.

“I was trying to keep myself awake so I didn’t make anyone panic, it doesn’t matter the gravity of the problem, it matters for me that the people around do not suffer because of my actions.”

The blue shark is a long-distance migrant that is present in Irish waters usually from June to October, when it is taken by recreational anglers on a catch-and-release basis, according to Inland Fisheries Ireland, external.

It says the blue shark is one of Ireland’s largest and most valuable marine sport fishes.

Jack Kelly, a marine biologist and cinematographer in County Galway, said they are “common all around Britain and Ireland during the summer months”.

“You can definitely get them in numbers,” he told BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster.

Kelly said all sharks are “so curious in an amazing way”.

“If a shark approaches anything, really, it’s not like they have fingers to be able to investigate to see what it is. So they have this amazing curiosity about them where they’ll come, they’ll just kind of circle and try to check out what’s going on,” he said.

“You’ll often get them actually just really staring at you.

“For me, when I’m underwater they might give the camera a bump just to see what it is, so their curiosity for me is definitely something that stands out.”

Blue sharks can reach more than three metres in length and feed in open water on fish, squid, smaller sharks and sea birds.

The conservation status of the blue shark is listed as near threatened on the Irish Red List for cartilaginous fish and by the IUCN Red List, according to Inland Fisheries Ireland.

The Marine Sportfishing Tagging Programme, external tagged 19,309 blue sharks between 1970 and 2013 off the coast of Ireland, which accounts for 45% of all tagged fish since the beginning of the programme.

This is not the first time people have been bitten by sharks off the Irish coast.

In 2018, a Belfast man who was angling caught a blue shark and was bitten while bringing it on board a boat.

His lower arm was seriously injured in an incident where he was helped by Crosshaven RNLI in Cork.