This article is from page 9 of the 2011-11-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 9 JPG
A 51-YEAR-OLD man who lost his life while fishing off Donegal Point in Kilkee on Saturday had received several warnings from locals saying it was too dangerous to fish, according to local rescue services.
The man, who has been identified as Armands Silins from Nagles Terrace in Kilrush, lost his life after being swept from his nine-foot dinghy into rough waters just before 2pm on Saturday. The incident was reported immediately by a local fisherman, who was watching from the shore, and the Kilkee Marine Rescue recovered the man from the sea within 15 minutes.
The man was unconscious and hypothermic when recovered and the rescue service performed first aid and gave the man oxygen. The Shannon-based Irish Coast Guard helicopter airlifted the man from Kilkee to the Limerick Regional Hospital where, despite continued efforts to resuscitate him, he was pronounced dead a short time after his arrival.
Founder of Kilkee Marine Rescue, Manuel DiLucia, said that the man was not wearing a life jacket and had been warned by a number of people not to take his light craft into the dangerous waters.
“He was in a small and light dinghy and he had to carry that dinghy down a cliff to even get to the water. It was white water with swells of around two or three metres so it was not suitable at all for a boat of that size to be out fishing. It was totally unsafe.
“The location where he was is a very dangerous location, even if the sea had been calm. The man had been warned several times about going out fishing there and he ignored the advice that he was given. He wasn’t even wearing a life jacket, just a high visibility jacket which did help us to locate him.
“We are fed up of telling people where is safe to fish and where is dangerous. People are just ignoring us, especially foreign nationals. This happens quite a lot and is a big problem.”
More than 10 Eastern European men have died while fishing off the coast of west Clare over the past five years. The 51-year-old Latvian man had been living locally for a number of years and worked in Kilrush.