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yeah, if you want to get in the water around here, you’ll be swimming with shaks and crocodiles. Pennekamp State Park has a lovely little beach with mangroves fringing the swim area. signs warn of crocs, but there are always people - myself included - swimming, snorkeling and wading. i have seen two crocs there on separate visits, but i am not hesitant to swim there. same with sharks. we dive the reef and see them all the time, from shy nurse sharks to some big bull sharks, yet we continue to get in that water.
that the girl scouts were in a designated swim area, with warning signs, in a state park does not imply negligence on the part of the adults. when this one was spotted, they got the swimmers out and that’s that. still, there are certain times when one should be abundantly cautious and that would be around mating and nesting times when they are more aggressive. or at night. don’t swim with gators or crocs at night. no, don’t do that.
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Yeah that tracks given the rarity of fatal alligator attacks in the United States.
Looks like it’s basically on par with the danger of being killed by bears or sharks or wolves; the annual death rate in the United States is in the low single digits but the footage of close encounters is scary enough to get a disproportionate amount of media coverage. Statistically speaking your kid is far more likely to die in a car accident on the way to the camping trip/beach/etc. than from an animal attack once they get there.
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To be fair, your odds of being attacked by a gator increase tremendously when you swim where gators are present.
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And your odds of being attacked by a great white shark increase tremendously when you swim in the ocean, but they’re still pretty dang low. Only two Americans have been killed in alligator attacks so far this year and they were both elderly people walking their dogs.
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Speaking of which, has any other audio clip been used in more movies than the Wilhelm scream?
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Yeah. Houston area water? Not the gators I’d be worried the most about. The ameoba and carcinogens from all the petroleum refineries everywhere should be high concerns. At least you can see the gators.
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good point. i think back to growing up in texas and how brother and i would swim in yucky, muddy-brown water and i shudder.
swimming in bayou water in the houston area just squicks me right out.
give me the gin-clear water here, where i can see bottom 20meters below, over any chocolate milk colored water of the Brazos river home i grew up in.
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I’m reminded of the total freakout when I was a kid and we used to play at the edge of a waterhole at the end of a long irrigation canal across the street from our house (we lived right on the edge of the city limits). My older brother had told me that the catfish would eat me alive if I fell in, and one day while playing with a friend I actually fell in. After a minute of panicking and thrashing around, I stood up to realize that nothing was eating me and the water was only chest high (on a very short kid).
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