Serious, snake or spider bite, while very painful is hardly violent! The thought of being ripped apart by a bear smashing his powerfully clawed paws into your skull and body is pretty scary thought, seeing flesh hanging from your bones and major arteries spurting gallons of blood doesn't appeal to me. Give me the snake or spider bite any day. Also being killed by a shark would be pretty gruesome, their is nowhere to run and hard to defend when in the ocean.
We used to holiday in South Africa or Australia when I was but a young snapper back in the 90's. As you probably know, the waters of those countries are quite popular with Great Whites. While we knew it, it just never occurred to us that anything could ever happen to YOU. So around 96-97 we were in SA again somewhere along the east coast. The name of the town escapes me now. Waters were clear, the surf good and everything peaceful. My sister and I were about 300m into the ocean when there was a shark attack on one of the surfers. About 30-40m away from us. Nothing serious as we found out afterwards, but at the time, and with all the screaming and shouts from the other water goers and surfers, you would've thought the guy was cut in half. No, this was not THE scary part, the scary part was a grey shape that near enough surfaced next to my sis and I. Shark attack 20sec ago within shouting distance and now a large grey fish/object so close you could give it a belly rub had your body not been frozen stiff. And you think you know fear? Let me tell you, you don't.
I can't remember what I thought or done but I vividly remember thinking that the human body is around 70% water and if I could only find a way to dissolve into water molecules and float out along with my sister, we could live, have families and sit around a Christmas table on a snowy European December day and tell about a time long ago we stared death in the eyes. The feeling of helplessness knowing you're in it's territory and as powerful as the (funnily enough) proverbial fish out of water is horrifying.
But long story short, it was a school of dolphins that got a bit too close. We swam out with the speed of a small boat and to this day I've never sat foot in seawater deeper than 6ft.
