this may be a stupid question but......Can you swim in that water freely or are there too many things that will try and eat/sting/poison you?

In Canada there are very few animals that would be considered as dangerous. I can swim in any body of water around here and the only thing I really need to worry about are leaches. I have a friend in the US living in Florida who tells me about all the crocs in his backyard and I think about how different that would be in a survival situation for me. all I see in my yard are rabbits and squirrels. Night and day