PLYMOUTH, Mass. — September 5, 2014 — Sitting on her deck Thursday afternoon overlooking the rocky outcrops of Manomet Point, Ida Parker shivered at what she called the “crazy, surreal” sight of people swimming in the bay.
It was a reaction she couldn't have ever contemplated in her 29 years growing up in her family's waterfront home.
But on Wednesday, Parker and friend Kristin Orr, 29, a Barnstable High School graduate now living in the Plymouth area, were attacked by a great white shark while on an early evening kayak trip to the crumbling remnants of two rocky jetties on the point.
On Thursday, the town of Plymouth put up signs banning swimming on its beaches, and its harbormaster called for more shark research to discover if great whites are more frequent visitors to the area.
“We went from nobody believing they are out there to a full-blown attack on a kayak. It's unnerving,” Harbormaster Chad Hunter said Thursday.
The area where the attack occurred is frequently used for swimming, boating and water-skiing, Parker said.
“This is going to change a lot of things, how we all swim out there,” Parker mused. “The sad thing is that, for me, it's my backyard, my home. It's where we felt the safest.”
Parker's house has been in the family for more than 60 years, back to her grandmother's tenure there, and during that period it had been as safe a place for any type of water-related adventure imaginable.
“We water-ski and tube there. Kayaks go out to that corner (the point) every day, multiple kayaks,” Parker said. “It was an area where you are very comfortable.”
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