Porbeagle Bites Fisherman

A fisherman on board the fishing vessel Sigurður VE from Vestmannaeyjar islands was bitten in the hand by a porbeagle while blue whiting fishing south of the Faroe Islands, Morgunblaðið reports. The accident happened at the end of November. The man was transported by boat to Tórshavn, the Faroe Islands, where his injuries were treated. The man is recovering, but still unable to work.

According to information from Ísfélagið, the fishing company that operates Sigurður VE, the porbeagle had been caught in the trawl and had been disentangled from the net. The fish looked completely dead when the fisherman attempted to throw it back into the sea. It turned out to be alive, though, and bit the fisherman in the left hand, resulting in a great deal of bleeding and damage to tendons and muscles.

Porbeagle (Lamna nasus), a mackerel shark, can get as large as 2.5 m and weigh as much as 135 kg. The porbeagle that bit the fisherman is thought to have measured about 1.5 m (nearly 5 ft).

“Porbeagle is not considered dangerous to humans,” according to the science website Vísindavefurinn, “and there are very few instances in which a porbeagle has attacked people. The few such instances have mainly occurred on board boats when fish were on the deck and bit people.”