Sharks in Cancun?

Search google for Cancun shark attacks & you get a lot of results. A scary lot.

On TripAdvisor's Cancun travel forum, travelers are asking questions and offering advice on topics like "SHARKS??? Any need to worry?".

Well, that depends...
If you're the kind of person who worries about being hit by lightning on a blue sky day (hey, it happens!), then yes, you have reason to worry. Consider this syllogism:

There are sharks in the ocean.
Cancun is on an ocean.
Therefore: there are sharks in Cancun.

Go figure. It works in theory. And, sadly, also in practice. Here's a creepy news report from 2011:

~~~

A Canadian tourist suffered a severed arm as the result of a shark attack Monday while swimming near a hotel in Cancun, Mexico. 

Officials say the 38-year-old woman, identified in some reports as Nicole Ross and in others as Nicole Ruth, also suffered serious injuries to her left leg.

"A female shark attacked and left her badly hurt," Mario Castro, head of the local civil protection office, told the El Diario del Yucatan newspaper.

Ross was reportedly swimming about 50 feet from shore with companions when she encountered the shark.

The medical director of a private hospital where Ross was treated, Dr. Italo Sampablo Lauro of Hospiten, called such a shark attack "exceptional" and rare in Cancun.

"We've not had this kind of incident here previously," he said.

According to news agency Notimex, there was a shark attack near Cancun in 2008 which claimed the life of a local man.

Sharks are a tourist attraction at the Mexican resort, with tours taking visitors to swim with
non-threatening bottom-feeding nurse sharks and to observe the creatures from Plexiglass cages.

It's believed the shark that attacked Ross was female and had come close to shore to give birth. The type of shark involved in the incident had not been determined.

~~~

That attack took place near the Moon Palace Resort (at the southern end of the hotel zone), but that doesn't really make much of a difference. Presumably, it could just as easily have occurred anywhere along the coast.

Which reminds me of a story that illustrates a final point I want to make for readers who really do want to avoid sharks at any cost:

When Jen & I visited Florida a couple years ago, we made a point of visiting New Smryna beach, near Daytona. While I was talking to another couple in waist-deep waves, I mentioned that New Smryna was the shark attack capital of the world & that people had been nipped by sharks right where we were standing. When the young woman freaked out & started to leave the water, I told her that I was just kidding about the second part, the part about being attacked in shallow water. She left anyway, & I later discovered that I was wrong. Sharks have attacked people in very shallow water!

Conclusion:

The only way to guarantee that you won't be attacked is to stay out of the water. And the only way to guarantee that you won't be hit by lignting is to stay in the house. And the only way to guarantee that you won't be caught in a house fire is stay outside the house...

Millions of tourists visit Mexico every year. One shark attack every other year? I can deal with those odds. I probably won't ever swim again at New Smyrna. But I'll be swimming in Cancun every chance I get!

[Don't miss my followup post here!]