We used to go fishing when I was a child in an inlet near where the Atlantic met salt marshes near the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. It was a good place to catch flounder, but we got lots of junk on the lines, too: blowfish (a nuisance to remove the hook from as they inflated); and sand sharks. Those, we cut the line on, as trying to extract the hooks was just too much of a danger. They were small sharks, only about a foot long, but not something you wanted to hold onto while you attempted to free the hook. Once you saw the dorsal fin break the water, you knew it was time to cut the line and re-tie another hook. They are good strong swimmers. I don't think it would be especially good to encounter one while swimming.
While we were on the island, a woman died from a shark attack while swimming off of Orient Beach. She was about 100 yards off shore doing laps. The suspicion is that it was a Tiger shark, and that it had been emboldened by the lack of swimmers whose numbers had dwindled due to Covid. She basically lost her leg and exsanguinated. They closed the beaches everywhere for about a week. It made us kind of nervous to swim, even though we were on the other side of the island.
