Dad's beach warning after son gets fishing hook embedded in foot
A father is urging people to think twice before casting a line at popular swimming areas after his son was injured by a set of gang hooks.
Shaun Williamson, a father-of-three from Perth, had been at Mullaloo Beach on Saturday with his family, when his six-year-old son Cody ran into trouble while he was in the surf.
"One of those hooks went straight into his foot. He bent down to see what it was," Mr Williamson told Yahoo7.
"As he's trying to rip it out the other one has gone straight into his finger."
The young boy was struggling in the water, with his hand connected to his foot.
Fortunately his mother spotted him quickly and ran to help.
"She's grabbed him from the water and carried him," Mr Williamson explained.
"We managed to pop the one out of the finger on the beach."
"He was in a bit of a frantic state."
Fortunately a few other gentlemen on the beach helped and they were able to retrieve the hook from Cody's foot as well.
Mr Williamson said his son was hysterical.
"I'm an avid fisherman.. and this is why we never go fishing in popular swimming spots. You always go left or right," he said.
He believes there should be some sort of exclusion zones around popular swimming areas.
"It's inevitable you do get bust offs, but all they needed to go was 100 metres to the north or 100 metres to the south."
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The father acknowledges this could have been a more serious.
"He didn't have the use of the hand or his feet. He could have drowned quite easily."
Fortunately Cody is going to be fine and has been spending the afternoon enjoying some ice cream and his favourite movie following the ordeal.