TWO students out paddle boarding at Barlogue got close enough to remove netting from the tail of a basking shark.

Saoirse O’Donnell and Lizzie McCaughey-Hoare were brought to Skibbereen on Friday evening by Jim O’Donnell and his wife for a few hours on the water before a barbecue.

‘When I entered the water, I started to paddle towards two black dots on the horizon, which I presumed were the girls swimming in the distance, only to realise it was the dorsal and tail fins of a 7-8m basking shark,’ said Jim.

He and Barbara paddled closer, but the girls took fright and got out of the water.

‘We stayed very still and soon the shark started circling around us,’ he added.

‘It seemed completely unbothered, perhaps even unaware of our presence. It was more interested in the plankton bloom that had washed into the bay.’

After 30 minutes, Barbara returned to shore to let the girls, who by then had become curious, use her paddle board to get a closer look.

Initially, they were nervous, but soon became comfortable with the large fish swimming around them. Jim said the shark bumped into his kayak several times which he found unnerving due to the sheer size of it, however, on one close pass to the girls Saoirse noticed it had some fishing line, or netting, trailing from its tail.

‘Without further thought, Lizzie paddled right up behind the shark so Saoirse could pull it off. It was an amazingly brave move, said Jim, ‘and an unbelievable encounter with nature that none of us will ever forget.’

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