The Best Place to Find Sharks Teeth in Florida

Three Ways to Find Venice Beach Shark Teeth!

Looking for the best place to find sharks teeth in Florida? Here are the details you need to know for the ultimate shark tooth-hunting Adventure!

Known as the “Shark Tooth Capital of the World,” locals, tourists, and SCUBA divers come to Venice Beach to hunt for “black gold” – Megalodon, Mako, and smaller species of shark teeth!

Picture this – ancient treasures, dating back millions to hundreds of thousands of years, washed up on the beach and scattered offshore.

And the best part? They’re completely free for the taking!

Now, I may be slightly obsessed (okay, more than slightly) but I’ve been a shark tooth hunting for 7 years. Trust me when I say there’s a whole underwater fossil world to be found.

Article Summary

1. Finding Shark Teeth on the Beach
2. Information You Need to Know About Shark Teeth Diving
3. How to Find Sharks Teeth Shore Diving, Venice Beach FL
4. Boat Diving for Sharks Teeth in Venice Florida
5. Ready for a Little Bit of Venice Beach Fossil Science?
6. But wait, there’s even more types of fossils to find!

1. Find Shark Teeth on Venice Beach

Hunting for shark teeth on Caspersen Beach in Venice, Florida is a popular local activity!

All you need is to train your eye to look for small black triangles and have patience.

Most of the teeth you find here will be around ½” inch or smaller.

They can be fossilized Bull, Tiger, Sand Tiger, or Lemon shark teeth.

I bring 100 students every year to look for shark teeth on Caspersen beach, the majority are successful in finding fossils.

You can find plenty of stingray mouth plates and barbs, most people don’t know what they are and leave them on the beach.  Sections 5 and 6 of this post has more information about this.

You can use this link from the Fossil Guy to help you ID your shark’s teeth and stingray fossils. Scroll 1/2 down the page to the black background chart titled “Venice Beach Fossils”.

If you want to find larger shark teeth, like Megalodon teeth, then you need to go scuba diving in Venice. Occasionally Meg teeth will wash up on the beach, but it is rare.

There are three different ways to locate fossils from the beach:

1. Fossilized shark teeth can be uncovered by standing in the water and sifting through the sand.
   You can use a kitchen strainer, buy a long-handled metal scoop/strainer from the local Babe’s hardware store or make your own shark tooth sifter.
2. Walk up and down the beach at the water line and high tide line.
   Look for small black triangles that have washed up.
3. Snorkeling around the shoreline on clear, calm days.

The main spot to go fossil hunting is Caspersen Beach, it is also known as “shark tooth beach Florida”. It is located at the very end of the Venice beach road.

The best time to go is low tide or after a storm. Especially after a storm!

For the chance at finding larger teeth, you need to go at sunrise to beat the locals who are out early every day to look for them.

However, if you are like me and consider noon early morning there are plenty of teeth to find – you are going to have to search a little harder and longer.

Best advice – bring a picnic and plan to spend a few hours looking. Develop your “shark tooth eye” – yep it is a real “thing”.

If you would like to purchase a larger shark or megalodon tooth from Venice beach, I have an Etsy shop. I find all of my shark teeth scuba diving in the Venice area.

The address for Caspersen Beach Park is 4100 Harbor Dr S, Venice, FL 34285. There is parking, bathrooms, and showers available.

2. Information You Need to Know About Shark Tooth Diving

Scuba Diving in Venice Florida for shark teeth is one of my favorite activities.

I love finding these one-of-a-kind teeth so much that I opened up an Etsy shop selling real shark tooth necklaces. This helps support my “black gold” diving obsession.

Shark tooth diving is completely different from recreational scuba diving.

Although Divers are always supposed to be diving with a “buddy”, shark tooth diving is mostly done alone. Divers often separate and/or lose their scuba buddy when hunting for shark teeth.

During beach dives, my buddy and I stay in the same area and check in with each other on the surface every 30 minutes.

I was nervous about going alone on my first shark tooth dive. Tethering myself to my scuba buddy was difficult and unpleasant. It was the first and last time I tried tethering to anyone.

I quickly learned there is absolutely nothing to be nervous about! The water is shallow (20-25 feet) and there is not much out there. It’s 99% sand, rock, and some fish.

In ten years of diving in Venice, I have never seen a fish larger than my scuba fin. Not a single stingray, sea turtle or shark!

However, on my last 3 dives, I did see seahorses as big as my hand!

The visibility is typically poor, anywhere from 1- 5 feet around you. This is the main reason why buddies get separated.

There is very little to see other than searching for shark teeth and fossils.

It is possible for dive buddies to search next to each other, or one buddy searches while the other one follows. Have a plan if you get separated from each other during the dive.

I pick a scuba dive search pattern and swim up and down rows or in a square.

My face is 5-10 inches from the ocean floor the entire time I am fossil hunting. I am good about not using up my air quickly, so I can hunt for over an hour on one tank.

Make sure you have a mesh fossil hunting bag. If you are going out on a boat charter, they will have one you can borrow. 

The local dive shop I recommend is Venice Dive Center. You can buy the mesh bags here if you want your own.

The best time to go shark teeth hunting in Venice is always after a storm. Tropical storms and hurricanes stir up the bottom and expose new teeth.

5. How to Find Sharks Teeth Shore Diving, Venice Beach FL

There are a few places in Venice where you can beach dive for shark’s teeth.

Typically, you won’t find megalodon teeth this way. You will find some larger and more impressive shark teeth than what you can find on the beach.

It’s free and a fun activity, this is how I find my smaller teeth which I make into shark tooth necklaces.

The benefit to Venice shore diving is that you can find a lot of good quality smaller shark teeth. These teeth are from four or five different shark species that lived around Venice millions of years ago.

I have heard tales of divers finding Megalodon teeth – but I have only found them boat diving.

You can find larger pieces of whale rib, dugong rib, and other ice-age animal fossils beach diving. There are pictures of the fossils you can find in Florida on the Tampa Bay Fossil Club website.

Don’t forget to bring a mesh bag to hold your fossils.

The hardest part of shore diving is finding parking – it can be difficult.

Drop your equipment and your dive buddy on the beach and go find a side street to park where you won’t get towed.

Weekdays of course are better than weekends and off-season is better than high season (March and April). The earlier in the morning you can get there the better your chance of finding a decent parking spot.

Three locations for beach diving are:

1. Alhambra Rd, where it dead ends into the beach area, swim out 200-300 feet and start hunting. Look for rocky, shelly areas also areas with black sand mixed in. This is where I have found a lot of good quality smaller shark teeth.
2. Manasota public beach. Directly off the lifeguard stand. Swim out 300 ft and then go north until you see shells or rocks. Follow these shells and rocks to the east and west looking for teeth.
3. Venice Public Beach at the end of Venice Ave. Swim southwest past the artificial reef blocks. I have heard of people finding teeth around the 6-foot blocks.

4. Boat Diving for Sharks Teeth in Venice Florida
My favorite way to hunt for megalodon in Venice!

I’ve been SCUBA diving with Captain Mike, Aquanutz for at least 7 years. Ironically, I am editing this post because my dive got cancelled today due to bad weather.

Mike’s charters are the best deal in town (but please don’t tell him that). His price includes 3 dives, and he doesn’t restrict the dive time you are in the water. He asks that you come back to the boat with 500 psi left in your tank.

I dive 1 ½ hours on a single tank, since the water is about 20-25 feet deep.

Aquanutz is a small boat that holds 6. Included in the price is your tanks, weights, and a mesh collection bags for the three dives (if you don’t have your own).

He is well known in the area; it is unlikely you can get a last-minute reservation with him so book several months in advance. It is advisable to book 6 months in advance during peak season summer months.

It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or a pro, Captain Mike will be happy to show you examples of fossils you can find and give you the tips to locate them.

I dive with Fossil Junkies on weekends with Mike is booked. The owner has a small boat, is a friend of Mike’s, and offers great service. The Fossil Junkies boat leaves a little earlier in the morning and includes three tank dives.

Another well-known dive boat charter in the area is Aristakat’s. They offer 2 tank shipwreck, barge, and shark tooth dives in Venice. My first shark tooth dive was with Aristakats almost a decade ago!

Venice Dive Center can help with information about available boat charters.

5. Ready for a Little Bit of Venice Beach Fossil Science?

Remember those predator-prey relationships from high school science?

Yeah well, in Venice, you will find sharks’ teeth AND fossils of what they ate.

Get ready to stumble upon fragments of whale rib bones (seriously, they’re everywhere) dugong rib bones (Yep, they’re everywhere too!), and turtle shells – because that’s what Megalodon and the larger sharks ate.

For a terrific free fossil resource guide (with photos), check out the Tampa Bay Fossil Club.

With the smaller shark teeth (today’s sharks) you will find stingray mouth plates and barbs (yep, you guessed it, everywhere!).

These are easy to find on the beach, mostly because no one knows what they are.

6. But wait, there are more fossils to find!

Everyone wants to go Venice for shark teeth, but there are so many more types of fossils to find!

Along with shark teeth you can find ice-age animal bone fragments.

Venice has an assortment of fossils just waiting to be found.

You can find ice-age animal bones including horse teeth, and mammoth teeth. Mammoth teeth are worth as much or more than Megalodon teeth!

Why are ice age animal’s, mixed with shark fossils?

Florida was underwater most of earth’s history, so all the shark fossils found here make sense.

A single shark can lose over 25,000 teeth in their lifetime!

However, during the height of ice age Florida was no longer under water, and the state was twice as wide as it is now.

This is why there are no land dinosaur bones in Florida, but plenty of marine and ice-age animals.

These bone fragments are even easier to find (compared to shark teeth) because everyone’s too busy searching for teeth and don’t know these other types of fossils are all in the same area.

If you are interested in knowing more about Megalodon and/or Florida Ice Age Animals you can buy these (cheap) lessons I’ve created for educators at my Teachers Pay Teachers store (they are mostly pictures).