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Irish man devastated after fatal shark attack in Florida

Family had just left beach before sharks encircled kite surfer

By
DONAL THORNTON,
IrishCentral.Com
Published Thursday, February 4, 2010, 10:10 AM
Updated Friday, February 5, 2010, 8:14 AM

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Shark attack: A great white shark similar to the ones which surrounded kite-surfer Stephen Schafer
Shark attack: A great white shark similar to the ones which surrounded kite-surfer Stephen Schafer


Irish tourist Ian McTiernan,  from Northern Ireland but living in Boston, had just left the beach in Stuart, Florida when a man kite surfing was killed by sharks.

Stephen Howard Schafer, 38, was kite surfing on Stuart beach just before the shark attacked and killed him. 

"It was the most frightening thing I've ever heard," said McTiernan, who was vacationing with his girlfriend in Palm Beach, Florida and had taken a drive to Stuart Beach, Florida just hours before the attack.  

McTiernan said he had spent the morning swimming with his girlfriend and "luckily" left the beach a few hours before the attack.

"Imagine that could have been us," said McTiernan. 

"We were even thinking about kite surfing because neither of the two of us had done it before."
 
"My god are we glad we didn't do it now. I'm just sick in my stomach for that poor fella," McTiernan added. 

A spokeswoman from Martin County Sheriff’s Office, Rhonda Irons, said that a lifeguard spotted the man floating about a quarter-mile offshore in an unguarded stretch of ocean. 

The lifeguard raced towards the water on a rescue board and pulled Schafer away from the sharks. 

Schafer was taken to Martin Memorial Hospital, where he died. 

 
This is the first shark attack of its kind in Stuart Beach. 

Although McTiernan will continue his vacation in Florida, he swears he will stay out of the water there.

"I'm not taking any chances," he said. 

Capt. Mark McKinley from the Martin County Sheriff's Office said shark attacks were rare.

"I've been here 25 years,"  McKinley said. "To my knowledge, this is the first shark-related fatality we've seen."

However, several beaches have been closed in Florida in recent days as thousands of migrating sharks have been spotted off the  coastline.

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8 Comments

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srcarrvt | Feb 06, 2010, 07:19 PM EST
em avemaria.... the ocean is what it has always been. the marine life has had to adapt to us and what we've thrown into their world. they're just doing what comes naturally....

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baldoyler | Feb 06, 2010, 07:51 AM EST
Come on! he wasn't even there when it happened!! why didn't you interview the life guard who actually pulled the guy away from the shark???

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srcarrvt | Feb 05, 2010, 08:44 PM EST
I have to say, having lived in Stuart, the headline grabbed my attention....and to find out the headliner was "almost was there " made me shake my head. C'mon Irish Central, do us all a favor - leave the drama and hysterics to the rags....

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Nanaof5 | Feb 05, 2010, 08:07 PM EST
They weren't great whites-I believe that they were bull sharks

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KerryLKing | Feb 05, 2010, 04:20 PM EST
Hmmm, got to agree with ganjadec & thomregister. I opened the article because from the heading "Irish man devastated" it made it sound like he was "related, or knew" tha kite-surfer that was killed. I've always enjoyed Irish Central because you don't rely on "sensationalism" journalism. Let's please keep it that way....

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avemaria | Feb 05, 2010, 03:02 PM EST
Never swim in the ocean--it is not like it used to be.

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thomregister | Feb 05, 2010, 12:30 PM EST
I agree with ganjadec. I, like many Floridians, grew up swimming with sharks and all manner of marine life. My mother was attacked by a shark as a youth. So what? O yea, I'm of Irish lineage.

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ganjadec | Feb 05, 2010, 12:15 PM EST
I really do not understand the logic of interviewing someone who wasn't even there when the event happened just because he is Irish.

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