(Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)
Shark Week kicked off yesterday on Discovery and in a bit of unsettling news, Florida tops the list of states where sharks are most likely to bite.
Don't be too paranoid though, the chances of it happening are still very slim. Sharkattackdata.com reports that since 1900 there's been about 1600 unprovoked shark attacks, about 13 per year, but more than half have happened in Florida, with the majority near Daytona Beach. Hawaii comes in 2nd on the list with 230 unprovoked attacks since 1900, followed by California with 187, South Carolina with 116 and North Carolina rounds out the top 5 with 84.
You may be wondering why Florida is a place where these attacks happen most frequently and there's a few factors that come into play. First, Florida has the country's second largest coastline next to Alaska, so more coast means more beaches which gives a higher chance of a shark encounter. Another reason is because the southern coast of the U.S. is home to blacktip sharks which are known to have encounters with people. And finally, the warm weather is another factor that encourages shark encounters.
SOURCE: WFLA
