A fatal shark attack may have changed life ‘forever’ in Harpswell

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 28, 2020

The small public beach nestled into Mackerel Cove on Bailey Island would usually be full on a hot summer day, but it was mostly empty on Tuesday after a New York City woman was killed in the first fatal shark attack in recorded Maine history. Veteran fisherman George Coffin has seen small sharks off the coast and never a great white, but he once saw a chewed whale carcass that he believes to be evidence of their presence in deeper waters. He said the incident “probably changed the town forever” and that he was not sure he would want his grandchildren swimming there now.