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Amateur fishermen warned:
28.07.09
“Foolhardy” pair
stranded on outcrop
by Linda McGrory
A SENIOR Coast Guard officer has urged people not to
fish off rocky outcrops this summer after two
"foolhardy" young men got stranded near Inishowen
Head.
The two non nationals - one wearing a black
bin-liner to protect against the sea spray - got cut
off while rod-and-line fishing at Portcille, a
remote coastal location set below cliffs, several
miles from Greencastle.
Greencastle Coast Guard officer-in-charge Charlie
Cavanagh said his crew was alerted after the two -
one Polish and one Lithuanian - were spotted perched
on top of a rock surrounded by water.
He said they were dangerously unprepared and
unequipped for their fishing trip and oblivious to
the danger they were putting themselves in. |
"We sent a shore team
out to warn them to come off the rock before it was
too late, but these men weren't looking for help. It
was 5pm and we knew the high tide was only about an
hour and 20 minutes away," said Mr Cavanagh. The men
were warned to get off the rock but remained
fishing. The incident happened on Sunday, July 19 as
two female Lithuanian friends, watched them from a
relatively safe peninsular outcrop.
"As time went on, the waves were crashing over the
rock to a height of about seven feet and the two
started losing their fishing equipment. By this
time, they only had around six-feet square of space
to stand on," |
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added Mr Cavanagh. One
of the men managed to get back to safety while his
friend remained frozen "with fear and mild
hypothermia" to the spot. The Coast Guard boat was
tasked while the Sligo-based Sikorsky rescue
helicopter was intercepted on return from another
mission on the Shannon. However, the second man
eventually scrambled, with difficulty, back to his
friends. The rescue mission was stood down about
fifteen minutes before the helicopter's estimated
time of arrival. |
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| "We would like to
warn people, especially those who don't know our
coastline and in light of the recent tragedy in West
Cork, to never fish off these dangerous rocky
outcrops. It was only pure luck rather than good
guidance that these men escaped. If the wind had
been blowing in another direction or the velocity of
the waves had been any stronger, they might well
have been washed off the rock," added Mr Cavanagh.
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