David breaks Irish record with December catching of blue shark off Courtmac

A WEST Cork charter boat operator has the unique distinction of catching the first blue shark in the country this year in June, and now also the latest ever in the year.

The blue shark David Edwards caught on Tuesday was Ireland’s first ever December blue shark, and saw him break the previous Irish record of November 18th, 1995.

David, who runs West Cork Charters, was fishing 25 miles off Courtmacsherry with Tom Collins who runs a charter business from Union Hall/Reen Pier and David Norman who is a local bass fishing guide, when they made the record-breaking discovery. Courtmac man Henk Veldman was also on board.

Last Friday was another exciting day on board David’s boat when a group of scientists were amazed to tag another blue shark.

David said: ‘I knew there had never been a record of one in December so I invited the guys to come along on a busman’s holiday of sorts to see if we could repeat Friday’s feat. We caught and tagged the first one in Ireland this year so to now catch the latest ever is a real buzz, from an angling point of view.’