BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 25, 2022
A former deckhand on a fishing boat claims he was injured when a thrashing shark was inadvertently caught in the boat’s net and brought onboard. The deckhand, Mark Emerton of Old Orchard Beach, has sued the boat’s owner in U.S. District Court in Portland. Emerton, 54, was working on the Perseus on Aug. 27, 2019, which was trawling for groundfish in the Gulf of Maine, when the 15-foot shark was hauled onto the deck. Emerton was struck in the back by the thrashing shark, thrown across the boat and knocked unconscious. The encounter left him, a lifelong fisherman, with a cervical spine injury and nerve damage in his neck, shoulder and arm. The injuries keep him from working on boats.