What started out as a relaxing paddle in the Atlantic Ocean ended with a terrifying encounter with a shark for two women — and large bite marks on their kayaks to prove it. Ida Parker and her friend were kayaking off Plymouth, Mass., on Wednesday when the fin of a great white crept out of the open water.
"It came completely out of the water and got the bottom of the boat," Parker, wrapped in a towel, said as she struggled not to cry. "It flipped [my friend] over and it knocked my kayak completely over." The women, who had gone boating in the hopes of spotting seals, were about 110 yards offshore when the shark lunged at them, NBC affiliate WHDH.com reported. Jostled from their kayaks, they screamed in horror as "at least four feet of its head" emerged from the ocean, Parker said. A neighbor heard their cries and called 911 while the women bobbed in the Atlantic. "It was petrifying waiting in that water for the harbormaster to come and not knowing if anybody was going to come get us," Parker said. "You didn't know if he's under you or around you." On a panicked 911 call placed from the water, Parker pleads, "Help, Help! ... We're stuck in the water and there's a shark!" The women were rescued, and the harbormaster confirmed that bite marks on the bottom of their kayaks were from a great white.
Shark sightings have been common off Massachusetts this summer. Last week, a great white sighting in nearby Duxbury closed the beach.
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—Elizabeth Chuck