How To Find A Shark Tooth In Venice Beach, Florida (Everything You Need To Know)
Looking For All The Details On How To Find A Shark Tooth In Venice Beach, Florida?
As a former South Florida resident (I lived in Palm Beach County for 2+ years), I was able to explore the state and even had the chance to go hunting for shark teeth in Venice Beach. I read up on how to search for teeth before visiting but there was a lot of information missing that would have been helpful, so I created this complete guide to help others easily find a shark tooth or two in Venice Beach, Florida.
📆 When To Go Shark Tooth Hunting In Venice Beach, Florida
While you can go hunting for shark teeth anytime in Venice Beach, the best time to find them here is after a storm because it churns up the waters and sand, and brings teeth closer to the surface.
I visited during summer (the rainy and hurricane season) and had perfect weather while I was there but found loads of shark teeth.
📍 Where To Find A Shark Tooth In Venice Beach, Florida
The weather and water conditions can determine where exactly it’s best to find shark teeth in Venice Beach, and while I visited a number of beaches that were recommended for finding shark teeth, only one actually worked for me on my visit.
Check any of the popular Venice Beach, Florida options listed below, and if you find one shark tooth, keep looking because there will likely be many more there:
- Venice Fishing Pier (my luckiest location)
- Caspersen Beach
- Manasota Key
- Casey Key
- Brohard Park
- South Jetty Beach
🦈 How To Find A Shark Tooth In Venice Beach, Florida
There are three areas you can look to search for shark teeth in Venice Beach, in the sand on shore, in the shallow water right where the waves break, or on a deep ocean floor dive.
In The Sand On Shore
Many people are able to find shark teeth walking on shore searching in the sand, but I was never able to find any this way during my trip here. I think this a much harder way to search for shark teeth, but you may get lucky searching through the shells at any of the common shark teeth beaches listed earlier.
In The Shallow Water
The shallow water right where the waves break was the best place for me to find shark teeth when I visited. The little vertical ledge right where the waves crash was a treasure trove of these fossilized shark teeth.
Shallow Water Shark Tooth Hunting Tips:
- Be patient – I expected to immediately find teeth, but it took a little while before I knew exactly what I was looking for (and then I really started finding them)
- Dig deep in the vertical sand ledge – the little vertical ledge that the small waves crash into was where I found 99% of my teeth
- Look closely – the darker sand and small size of the teeth made it hard to spot at first, so I had to start looking very closely but then they got easier to see
- Look for shiny, black triangles – not all teeth were perfect triangles, but searching for shiny, pointy black edges helped distinguish the teeth in the sand
- Not all teeth were black – almost all the teeth I found were black, but a few were brown to light-brown in color
Deep On The Ocean Floor
A deep dive down to the ocean floor in Venice Beach is still on my bucket list because you can potentially find the large Megalodon shark teeth down there, which would be incredible!
⛏ Helpful Shark Teeth Hunting Tools
Finding a shark tooth in Venice Beach, Florida is much easier with the right kind of equipment and while some places rent them, I preferred to buy them ahead of time and keep them since it was about the same cost anyway.
- Quick-N-EZ Sifter (blue bucket pictured above, my favorite tool)
- Pros: large, wide, sturdy, easy to search and sift
- Cons: gets heavy, better with additional tools (like a shovel)
- Mesh Seashell Bags (colorful bags pictured above)
- Pros: easy storage, zipper to secure teeth, wearable, small mesh to keep teeth inside, good in the water, cheap
- Cons: none 🤷♀️
- National Geographic Scoop & Shovel (the best black scoop pictured above)
- Pros: comfortable handle, easy to scoop, useful shovel, sturdy
- Cons: larger holes, more expensive
- Beachcombing Shark Tooth Sifter
- Pros: floats, handle strap, wide viewing area
- Cons: expensive, harder to scoop, cheapishly made, smaller than expected
- Collapsible Shark Tooth Sifter Rake (better for on shore searching)
- Pros: sift standing, sturdy stainless steel, collapsible, digging teeth
- Cons: expensive, larger holes, harder to see teeth, heavy, sharp, not good in the water
- Bucket Hats, Sun Shirts, and Reef Friendly Sunscreen
ℹ️ History & Facts Of Venice Beach
Why Are There So Many Shark Teeth In Venice Beach, Florida?
There are so many shark teeth in Venice Beach, Florida because it sits on top of a large fossil layer that gets churned up by waves and storms.
This is why Venice, Florida is often considered the shark tooth capital of the world.
Why Are Venice Beach Shark Teeth Black?
Shark teeth are black (or sometimes a light to dark brown color) because they’re fossilized and at least 10,000 years old. Venice Beach teeth are estimated to be around 10 million years old.
Do You Have To Have A Permit To Collect Shark Teeth?
Florida does have many laws on collecting certain kinds of fossils, but shark teeth can be collected without any permit here.
How Do I Know What Kind Of Shark Teeth I Have?
You can find all different types of shark teeth at the beach in Venice, Florida, from small Mako sharks to the huge (extinct) Megalodon sharks, and there are a few ways to identify what kind of tooth it is:
- Guidebooks are sold all around Venice to help identify shark teeth
- There are apps to help identify shark teeth, but they don’t scan, they just show and compare teeth
- To identify the age of a shark tooth, you have to know the age of the sediments where the tooth was found (Venice Beach, Florida is estimated at around 10 million years old)
- There’s also a free option on the kids menu from Sharky’s on the Pier (it has some pictures and descriptions of different kinds of teeth)
🔁 Sum Up: Venice Beach, Florida, The “Shark Tooth Capital”
Once I knew where to go specifically in Venice Beach, Florida, how exactly to dig (on the vertical ledge where waves crash), and what to look for exactly (small shiny, black triangles), it started getting really easy to spot not just one shark tooth, but a couple hundred. It’s a lot fun feeling like a paleontologist in Venice Beach, and though it’s a lot of work, it’s much easier when you come fully prepared for the hunt.
