[TMN78247]

“Smaller” sharks in FL (and all along the Gulf coast) yes; “less fierce” no.

As I’ve said elsewhere on the forum, you are FAR more likely to be severely wounded, permanently damaged and/or killed by the teeth of a Bull or Tiger Shark than you are by a Great White attack.
(Fyi, Bull Sharks KILL more people Worldwide than ALL of the other sorts of sharks combined, each year. - My guess is that, especially in “developing nations”, that do not report to the international data gathers, that there are a large number of severe or fatal shark attacks that are never known outside the local area where the attack occurred.)

Yours, TMN78247

[Rockingham]

You are, of course, correct. The bull shark is the most frequent culprit in shark attacks worldwide due to its affinity for hunting close to shore and in brackish or turbid waters. If I recall correctly, the tiger shark is thought to be the fiercest in attacks on humans, with the hammerhead the second fiercest.

Genuine shark attacks that are intentionally aimed at humans are said to be exceptionally rare. Usually, the attack is a mistake. The shark does a test bite and then releases because the human prey is still alive and tastes funny.

Great White attacks in California are another matter because it is thought that the shark usually mistakes a swimmer or a surfer and board for a seal, a favorite food source. Great Whites are so large and powerful that its first and only bite is frequently fatal.

On the whole, shark attacks in Florida are rarely fatal, with more Floridians killed annually by lightning or a pit bull than by a shark. Surfers know to avoid going into turbid water, being in the water at twilight, and to get to shore when the bait fish start jumping.

For all that, there is Jesse Arbogast, who as an eight-year old boy visiting from Alabama, was playing on a bright July day in two and half feet of water at a national park near Pensacola in the Florida panhandle. Out of nowhere, a seven-foot shark attacked, savaging Jesse's leg and then taking his right arm. Family and onlookers came to Jesse's rescue, while his uncle pulled the shark from the water, killed it, and recovered Jesse's severed arm.

Remarkably, although Jesse bled out and had a heart attack, he survived, and his arm was even reattached. Now a young man, he is maimed and disabled due to hypoxic brain damage. Wheel-chair bound and unable to speak, he is cared for by a loving family. The shark? A bull shark.