When in Rome, or in Venice, Florida, do as the local do. What do they do, you may wonder. Read on and we will tell you all about it.
By now, you probably know that we are beach bums. We didn’t really know this about ourselves, or maybe we took it for granted, but you can’t keep us away from the water. Well, mostly away from the beach.
When we got to Manasota Key, we headed straight to the beach and very quickly we noticed that everyone around us was engaged in an activity that looked familiar. It involved eyes on the ground, even if there was an amazing sunset in the background.
Most people were working in pairs in the water and it was clear that they were sifting for something specific.
If you knows us just a bit, you may know that we like looking for things. As an archaeologist, I always kept eyes on the ground, and since then, we have eyes on the beach; be it cool rocks, fossils, or beach glass. Obviously, this behaviour caught our attention immediately.
As it happens, we ended up in the world capital of fossilized shark teeth hunting. Of course, we were game.
We stopped a lady on the beach and asked her a few questions, which she was glad to answer and also show us her catch of the day. Soon after, we started finding our own shark teeth. Below is our first bounty of beachcombing.
On the second day, we went to another beach and found a lot more. The dark colour is a result of thousands (or more) years of oxidation with local minerals.
By the third day we went full Roman and bought a sifter.
Here is our first bounty using the sifter.
We were chased away by a thunderstorm, but we’ll be back! with the rest of the Romans.
I would so love to find things like that.
I wonder if there are any beaches in Australia that have them?
I don’t know. Actually I do. I’ll get back to you.
I’ve never heard of this before. Amazing. We have a lot of sharks off our beaches where I live in Australia, but nothing like this. What do they do with the teeth?
I think people make jewelry, art, and crafts with them. Some probably sell them.
then you sell your findings to the local museums. They then sell the teeth as fossils to kids. The kids get parents to pay for the teeth, and the money goes into keeping the shark exhibit alive…a win win for all involved. Now, look for gold and diamonds! We LOVE beach combing, best of all is just sit, drink beer, eat shrimp and be entertained by folks like you.
Actually, we are the ones that are being entertained 😂
Nice haul! I wonder what else you’ll find?
There isn’t much else on these beaches other than shark teeth and shells. Oh, and lots of sand 😊
This is such a flashback for me. 30 years ago we rented a house in Venice for a vacation in Venice. Our girls were young and you can imagine the excitement of shark tooth hunting. Glad you are making the most from the van challenges.
It’s a beautiful area and it is possible to stay away from the ritz and kitsch if one wishes. Actually, you just made me realize that this brings out the child in us 😊
That really is quite the bounty and quite the eye to be able to spot that and sort and sift it through the other things on the beach. Are there risks of live sharks swimming near the shore?
A trained archaeologist’s eye helps for sure. Florida has the highest number of shark attacks, and the daytona area has the most in Florida. They usually go for 6-10 feet of water. We haven’t seen any yet and I have no wish to see one lol. The teeth we are finding are fossilized ancient teeth, some are extinct, some are still around.
Do I see shark-tooth necklaces on your future?
Maybe?
Great photos! Brings back memories of searching for and finding fossilized shark teeth in Topsail Island, NC, decades ago. My son still has them 21 years later.
Thank you for the morning smiles 😊.
De nada. It was so much fun!
That’s an impressive amount of shark teeth you found!
Right? We were surprised too!
What a story!
Thanks for reading!
Nice post
Thank you!
My daughters used to find lots of these, often after a storm when the seas were rough. But thankfully we never saw a shark – you don’t expect to find Jaws off the coast of Essex, do you!
It’s very cool that they can be found all over the world. So many teeth!
We have a large amount of shark’s teeth we collected on the Florida Beaches years ago. Yes, join the Romans while you are in Florida.
It was so much fun!
What a neat hobby to search for teeth shark on the beach. I love how you went all in and even bought a sifter. Will you be trying to bring any of your treasures back across the border?
It was a lot of fun and we thought that we could use the sifter in Sarnia as well 🙂 I think it’s legal to bring shark teeth across the border as long as they are not part of an endangered animal.
It’s a funny hobby, I was expecting shrimps 🙂
Well, yeah, shark teeth are not edible, which makes them a bit useless if you are hunting for food.
Wow, shark teeth! I’ve never heard of being able to find them in the ocean, let alone so many of them! Then again, I’m told that sharks tend to congregate in warmer waters (like in Florida), so you won’t find as many as in the more-temperate California Pacific! Looks like a lot of fun scavenging around for them!
These are ancient shark teeth and can be found along some California beaches as well! You can also find the inland, in places where marine fossils can be found. It is fun scavenging 😊
How interesting! It’s amazing that there are so many of them to be found.
It was amazing, but could have been beginners luck too 😂
What a fun adventure! How many sharks it must’ve been to have so many fossils. I know sharks have lots of teeth, but what causes all the fossilized teeth there? Was there a mass extinction?
SOme are extinct, but I don’t think there was a mass extinction. Sharks constantly lose and grow teeth, and they lose thousands of teeth in their lifetime. If you take that and think thousands and millions of years of many sharks losing their teeth, you will have an astronomical number!
Good point!
I was also very surprised at the amount of teeth we found!
I knew people found fossilized sharks teeth on the beach sometimes, but I thought it was a rare occurrence. I am astonished by the number of teeth you found.
Wow what a find, and the age! So interesting. Looks like your vacation is going great. Love the title you chose. 😆👌
Thank you! Yeah, our forced vacation is going well, but we miss our little home on wheels. Also, maybe one can have too much beach time 🙂
Really neat post. Only shark teeth?
Yes, some shells too, but nothing fancy.
My Mom grew up near the Chesapeake Bay, and found quarts of sharks teeth near Calvert Cliffs.
That’s cool! I’ll keep that in mind!
Such a fun activity! And a great business for locals to sell all those sifters lol
We didn’t have time to look for bounties along Florida beaches on our last trip, but I couldn’t stop spotting tons of beautiful shells.
It was fun and shells were collected as well 🙂
How unusual, I wouldn’t have expected them to be black. I love beachcombing for shells but this is a new one.
We were very excited to find this new and intriguing activity as well!
Wow awesome! Lots of shark teeth on the coast of Florida!
We have a nice collection now. An unexpected gift from the ocean 😊