Visitors at Hampton Beach had all heard the news of a great white shark attack that killed a woman swimming off the coast of Maine on Monday.
“I grew up going to the Cape,” Nyssa Kreplin said Tuesday, referring to an area known for shark sightings.
Julie Dimperio Holowach’s death is believed to be the first fatality from a great white shark attack in Maine’s history. Authorities believe the shark, which was confirmed to be a great white by a tooth fragment left behind, mistook the 63-year-old New York City woman for a seal.
Maine Marine Patrol officials said Dimperio Holowach was wearing a wetsuit and swimming 30 to 40 feet off the shore of Bailey Island in Harpswell, Maine, with her daughter when the attack happened on Monday afternoon.
A man and woman in a rented tandem kayak towed Dimperio Holowach to shore, but she was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency responders. The retired fashion executive was a seasonal resident of the island, officials said.
Bailey Island is approximately 100 miles from Hampton Beach. On Tuesday afternoon, Emersyn Kreplin, 6, of Ballston Spa, N.Y., was splashing in the ocean with a boogie board as her mom, Nyssa, watched.
Nyssa Kreplin said she was not concerned about her daughter playing in the water in Hampton.
Devin Woods, Will Herrick and Haris Suljevic of Manchester were at Hampton Beach with Summer Descoteaux of Hooksett and Kayley Blum of Candia on Tuesday afternoon.
“We’re going back in the water after this. We don’t fear sharks,” Suljevic said.
But others were not so unruffled.
“My greatest fear,” Frances Vandine said on Facebook of the Union Leader’s story on the deadly shark attack.
“Oh trust me — all eyes are on the water,” Christine Klose Villeneuve wrote on the Union Leader Facebook page.
Officials at the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy have a Sharktivity Map posted online and they report at least 13 shark sightings off Cape Cod since Sunday.
There have been no sightings off the coast of New Hampshire.
John and Jane Eastep, of North Attleboro, Mass., were at Hampton Beach Tuesday with four of their grandchildren.
Jane Eastep said she has been coming to New Hampshire for over 60 years and there are typically no sharks that swim close to Hampton Beach.
Watching out for a shark is just one other thing to add to the list of things to be cautious of in 2020, Jane Eastep said.
“We’re careful about the (corona)virus and we will be careful about the sharks as well,” she said.