I grew up in Alabama and loved to fish as a kid. One time while surf fishing (I was about 13) and wading out to my chest to cast my line farther out, something hit me in the leg so hard that it knocked/flipped me side ways and off my feet. I was not bitten but I remember the feeling (still do to this day) and it freaked me out and of course got out of the water only to return the next day to fish again.
About 8 years ago or so (and 15 years later for me) we had a few shark attacks at the beach and I was visiting my grandmother, who often carried me fishing at the beach when I was child, and telling her this story, and she told me that one time she walked out behind while I was surf fishing and out to my waist in the water and a 8 foot hammer head swam right behind me, between her and me and maybe a 1-2 foot behind me, and I did not even notice. She told that she got me out of the water, but never told me why until this day.
Last year I went to the beach in Alabama for the first time in many years (been overseas) and was trying a water detector in the water when people came running along telling folks to get out of the water and to my surprise there was a 6 footer or so swimming up the beach between me and the shore.
Personally, I would pay taxes to put a shark net around public beaches or develop technology to keep them away from surf. Plenty of other places for them to go and hunt, and I prefer my kids (and me) are safe, even if a small chance something happens. Moreover, statistics likely do not consider the numbers of people in water (more people driving than getting in surf) and considering I've bought lottery tickets with much lower chance of winning I find the probability of being bitten by shark, especially if one adjusts stats to consider only those people who go in the water, to be too high for my liking and my poor luck.
As my dad and experience has told me, I tend to be in the wrong places at the wrong time. Just my luck.
