The Sunshine State holds the title of the location with the highest rate of shark attacks around the world, with 259 bites in Florida from 2012 to 2021.
But the risk of being bitten by a shark is still low, and deaths from a shark attack are rare, with just 60 fatal incidents worldwide from 2012 to 2021, according to the Florida Museum's International Shark Attack File (ISAF).
While the bull shark, the great white shark, and the tiger shark are reportedly the three species most likely to attack humans, there are certain regions where you're much more likely to get bitten.
Insider has taken a look at some of the major shark attack hot spots around the world, from Australia to the Bahamas.
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1. Florida
Florida tops the rankings for the highest rate of shark attacks globally, according to the ISAF.
September is the main time for shark attacks in Florida, with the highest chance of being bitten is in Volusia County, known as the "shark bite capital of the world," between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., ISAF statistics suggest.
The ISAF says that the US tops the charts for "confirmed unprovoked" shark attacks since 1580, with a recorded 1,604 incidents. Between 2012 and 2021 the ISAF counted 259 bites.
Mark Sumersett, 38, was reportedly bitten in the face in the waters off of New Smyrna Beach earlier this month, WESH 2 News reported.
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"It was the scariest thing I've probably ever been through in my life. I've been in bad car accidents. Nothing like this," he told the outlet.
2. Australia
Australia saw 143 attacks from 2012 to 2021, per the ISAF.
There were nine unprovoked attacks in Australia in 2022, with four New South Wales and Western Australia and one in Victoria, CNN reported.
Simon Nellist, a 35-year-old scuba diving instructor, was killed by a great white shark in what the ISAF classified as a "provoked incident" near Little Bay, off the coast of Sydney, earlier this year.