Shark teeth hunting, Venice Beach
Prehistoric sharks teeth, lying right there on the beach! You can find shark’s teeth 15-25 million years old here. Venice Beach is a well know site for fossilized shark’s teeth hunting. Most of the teeth are less than 2 inches in length and dark colored. Located a short distance off shore it is possible to find the elusive megalodon tooth which can average 5 inches long! When you find one of these, it’s a special treat.
Service Club Park beach dive site
http://www.venicegov.com/Park_links/service_club.htm
The common teeth are generally worth a dollar or two, with the mega teeth being worth hundreds of dollars. Conducting a quick search on eBay for sharks teeth will give you a good idea as to the value of what you found and help in identification. The teeth are easily turned into necklaces with some basic craft skills.
We enjoy a little quieter beach at times and have thoroughly enjoyed Service Club Park. The park is located behind the Venice Municipal airport and has free parking. There are restrooms at the park along with an outdoor wash down shower. The boardwalk to the beach has covered picnic tables with BBQ grills.
The teeth can be found in the surf line rolling with the small seashells. Some folks like to use a sand scoop to help sift through the shells.
Diving for teeth
If you have snorkeling equipment, here is the place to have a little fun. Scuba gear is quite common here as well. We enter the water directly off the boardwalk. To the south you will see a long pier where there is a restaurant.
Snorkel out to a point where you are almost even with the pier to the south and make a descent to the bottom, about 18 feet down. There is a narrow reef line in this area which runs parallel to the beach. If your in the rocks you may find a mega tooth wedged in some pockets of trapped sand. Kick your fins and move west until you leave the rocks for a sandy bottom.
Hand fanning the sand will produce the most teeth. We always carry a small mesh bag to collect the teeth. Often times we end up with over one hundred teeth between two of us. One aluminum 80 scuba tank will give you just under two hours of bottom time.
Looking for teeth on the seafloor
We like to work our way a little further north in a zig-zag pattern west of the rock line. Be sure to have your floating dive flag attached to you.
Northwest of this dive site is where you will see the dive shop and private boats hunting the area. Most of the divers are here and in the water by 8:00am. Should you prefer to dive with a group, or by boat, here is a great link with all the information you need.
http://www.divingforfun.com/trips_venice_details.shtml
Enjoy the dive, and report back with your findings!
The catch of the day
The boardwalk
Filed Under: Beachcomber News
About the Author: I'm a retired deputy sheriff turned sailor and author. Please feel free to leave comments and suggestions for anything you might like to read about. Hopefully I'll see you out on the water!
This is great! Reminds me of back in the day when a buddy and I used to dive the streambeds in Redwood National Park, California for gold.
Whoa I have got to go!!! it is my passion to look for sharks teeth…I found most if not all of mine along the water line on Beer can Island off Apollo Beach….no diving necessary…they are right there on the beach.
I’ll have to give it a try on Beer Can island. I didn’t know any teeth were there, thanks for the tip.
There was a boat explosion there a week or two ago, it can be a busy place on weekends. The news said the real name of the island is Pine Tree Island, but I don’t think anyone anywhere, other than the news, calls it by that name.
I’ll have to sail over during the week.