Monday, October 07, 2013

A fisherman's freaque wave tragedy happened in Ailadee, Ireland

This news from Midwest Radio96.1fm tells a simple tragedy:  

A search has resumed this morning for a Roscommon based fisherman who was washed off the rocks into the sea in county Clare yesterday.

The incident happened yesterday at an area known as the Fisherman's Climb, at Ailladee, in Co Clare
The same area, on the Atlantic coast between Doolin and Fanore, has been the scene of several previous tragedies.
The alarm was raised at about 5.30pm, but the recovery effort was abandoned as darkness fell.
It is always sad to read news like this, a fisherman washed off the rocks into the sea and lost. But it is by no means unusual. It had happened before somewhere else, it probably will happen again in some other places of the world at some other time somehow. Independent.Ie has further details about the case:
The 42-year-old man, believed to be a Latvian national living in Co Roscommon, was washed off the rocks by a rogue wave at an area known locally as the Fisherman's Climb at Ailladee in Co Clare.
and
It's understood that man was not wearing a lifejacket and may have been dragged beneath the waves by his heavy clothing.
So it was a freaque wave that caused it! And not wearing a lifejacket certainly also played a major role in this tragic case. May this fisherman be rest in peace and could help future cases not to make the same mistake of not wearing lifejacket like he did again.

2 comments:

Riverbank Images Ireland said...

Hi there,
As a person who is involved in one of the Irish rescue services I think that the following comment might shed some light on the incident which you have written about. Over the last eight to ten years or so there has been a huge increase in the amount of people who have been washed off the rocks by "freak" waves while fishing on the south and west coasts of Ireland. Now, while this incident is fresh in the minds, and families are still grieving for their loved ones I do not want to seem to be adding to their woes, but the most of these people who have drowned in this fashion are from the Eastern European communities who have moved to Ireland in search of work. While they are very accomplished anglers I am afraid that they either do not understand the ways of the sea or are unwilling to heed the advice of local fishermen who would not fish from these places in the types of weather which is taking so many lives. It is not freak waves which are taking most off these people. This is just the regular weather which Atlantic weather systems throw onto our western and southern coasts. Every life lost is a life too many. Hopefully people will eventually take heed of the warnings and stay off these rocky headlands until the weather is nice and calm. The problem is that after a gale has abated it can be sometime a week or more before the swell has gone down to a safe level and people don`t have the patience to wait. There is a lighthose on Skellig Michael rock just off the Irish coast. It`s light was outed for a period of twenty four hours on the night of 27th December 1955 by a direct hit from a wave during one of these Atlantic storms. That lght is one hundred and seventyfive feet above sea level. I think this is a fair marker as to how high some of these waves can be. Now I do believe that you could call a wave such as that a freak wave.
Yours sincerely,
Tony Lawlor.

Paul/Freaque Waves said...

Thank you so much Mr. Lawlor for the invaluable comment based from your knowledge and experience. Hope you can share with us more of your insights here and tell us more of those real life happenings you have seen from time to time.