Hero shark-wrestler fired from job

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MERTHYR TYDFIL, Wales, March 13 (UPI) -- An employee of a Welsh children's club says wrestling a shark that was endangering children in Australia cost him his job.

Paul Marshallsea, 62, got international attention when he grabbed a 6-foot shark he spotted heading toward children on a beach. But he says letters telling him he and his wife had both been dismissed by the Pant and Dowlais Boys and Girls Club were waiting for them when they got home, The Independent reported.

Marshallsea, who was project coordinator for the club, went on sick leave last April.

"Whilst unfit to work, you were well enough to travel to Australia and, according to recent news footage of yourself in Queensland, you allegedly grabbed a shark by the tail and narrowly missed being bitten by quickly jumping out of the way; the photographs and footage appearing in newspapers and television broadcasts," he was told.

Marshallsea said he was suffering from stress because of the hours he put in at his job, where he sometimes worked seven days a week. He said a doctor had advised him and his wife to take a vacation.

He is unsure what he will do now.

"Where do I now get a job? There's not much call for shark wrestlers in Merthyr Tydfil." he said.