[caww]

There’s a reason you don’t go into the water! I’d never swim the ocean nor even go boating in it. I can do the same thing on a lake without the threat.

[texanyankee]

Alligators like lakes....

[texanyankee]

Alligators like lakes....

[Magnum44]

I have SCUBA dived with many species of sharks (never Great Whites). It can be intimidating at times, but dont provoke them and they generally ignore you. Also, staying below them or at least below the surface so that your bubbles flow above and make you appear as a larger creature is a theory that, even if not true, has given me some confidence when they are around.

What you dont want to do is flop around on the surface like a seal meal.

[gnarledmaw]

We have better beaches in Wisconsin and Michigan along with no sharks.

[MDLION]

I saw a report on Fox about a week or so ago about a young girl who was injured in a shark attack but says she’s gonna go right back into the water when she heals though she’s lucky to be alive. Are these attacks really that rare? They seem constant.

[BlackbirdSST]

https://www.riverbender.com/articles/details/alton-resident-catches-736-pound-catfish-in-mississippi-river-12219.cfm

I grow tired of trying to hot link on this forum. One time it works, the next time pffft.

Bring plenty of tartar sauce.

[Boogieman]

“I’d never swim the ocean nor even go boating in it.”

I’ve done both and I don’t regret the experience. Even ran into a shark when I was snorkeling. Luckily it was a baby that was about 12 inches long. But I didn’t stick around until the mama came back :)

[threefinger]

...I can do the same thing on a lake without the threat."

There are fresh-water sharks, too. Actually there are salt water sharks that can adapt to fresh water.

The most notable among these is the bull shark. What's notable about them is that they're one of the most dangerous of sharks. The males have the highest testosterone or any animal on earth, which means they have a constant case of the ass.

And they don't mind fresh water. They've been found as far up the Mississippi as St Louis, and 2600 miles up the Amazon.

Lago de Nicaragua is full of them. Man-eating fresh-water sharks, 120 miles from the ocean. They're bull sharks but they've lived in that lake for so long they've differentiated into a new sub-species.

So if you think the fresh water is going to save you, think again. You probably don't even want to go near a water spigot. In fact, I'd recommend you give up drinking tap water and switch to soda-pop, but not Woke-a-Cola.

Or gin. That's what WC Fields would do.

[GOPJ]

Lots of our lakes in Florida have gators.