On our recent summer vacation to South West Florida, we decided to go looking for shark teeth on the beach. Venice Beach is known as the shark teeth capital of the world, but we wanted to go somewhere less crowded. Other beaches in the area, which are well known for beaches for finding shark teeth are Caspersen Beach, Blind Pass and Manasota Beach all just south of Venice Beach. You can read about our middle son’s shark teeth adventure on the kids blog too.
We were actually headed for Caspersen Beach, but because this beach is known for having rocks, we decided to try Manasota Beach instead. Manasota beach is a beautiful beach with long stretches of white sand mixed with sea shells, and yes you can find lots of shark teeth on Manasota Beach.
You can find Manasota Beach at 8570 Manasota Key Road, Manasota Key, FL.
We had read all about how we needed to buy a sifter or a shark teeth finder (look for them at Walmart), but as a frugal family we decided to bypass spending money and instead just went with our shovels and buckets.
The shark teeth are actually fossilized teeth that has been washed ashore, which is why they are mostly black. You can read more about the fossilized shark teeth at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
How To Find Shark Teeth
- The best place to find shark teeth on the beach is in South West Florida, and you can have great luck at Venice Beach, Caspersen Beach, and Manasota Beach.
- Bring a shark teeth finder, a sifter, or even just a bucket.
- Bring a hat and lots of sunscreen
- The best time to go is during low tide
- When you get to the beach, go out to the water edge, right where the sand goes down straight under the cresting waves.
- Take your bucket or sifter and scoop up a bunch of sand/shells and hopefully shark teeth right where the edge of the sand go straight down.
- Either take your sifter and get rid of the sand and start looking for shark teeth or
- Take your bucket and empty it out on the sand, where the sand is hard, but where the water cannot reach.
- After emptying your bucket into a pile, get a bucket of water and slowly pour the water over your pile of sand and shells.
- Now, start looking with your naked eye
- You will be looking for small black fossilized shark teeth (Look at the images above)
- The way to spot a shark tooth from a black shell is that the shark tooth will have two different surfaces, a rugged one at the top and a smooth surface at the bottom.
Once you find your first shark tooth, they will be much easier to spot. We did not have any advanced shark finding tools, we did not even have a net, and we found more than 50 shark teeth in about an hour.
Leave a Reply