Ten Reasons to Fear the Water and Everything in It

Over 99 percent of people around the world live near water. It falls from the sky, it bubbles up from the ground, and it encroaches from the sides. Some even have it in their homes. Humans need water to survive, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't fear it and everything in it. Here are ten great reasons to add this slippery substance to your list of phobias.

1. You can drown, even if you are a good swimmer. I think we all learned this from the box office last summer when Bridge to Terabithia, everyone's favorite childhood confrontation with mortality, nearly drowned us all in our tears. More importantly, we learned that the imaginative little girl, played by AnnaSophia Robb, drowned while unconscious regardless of her superior swimming skill.

2. Snakes can swim. The average length of a cottonmouth water moccasin is three to four feet, but they can reach up to six feet. Bite symptoms range from pain and swelling to difficulty breathing and shock. In water, for the reason listed above, is not a good place to go into shock.

3. Sharks take between ten and fifteen lives each year. Of total known attacks, there have been over 500 in Florida, but only 92 in California. Other states such as Oregon make a showing, with one fatal attack reported in the 1970's. These numbers may seem insignificant, being far overshadowed by the numbers racked up by car accidents and guns (both hundreds of times more common than deaths from shark attacks), but cars and guns aren't dead-eyed dinosaurs surfacing from the deep to tear off your limbs.

4. Alligators, crocodiles, and other members of the Crocodilian order are found on many continents, including North, South, and Central America, Africa, Asia, and of course, the most dangerous place on earth, Australia. They can grow to be over 23 feet long. They have legs, so the terror does not end at the water's edge. If that isn't enough to fear - PBS.org also lists "people" in the Diet section of several crocodilians.