February 23, 2024: Shark Tooth Hunting!!

DID YOU KNOW? Venice, Florida is also known as the Shark Tooth Capital of the World due to the bountifulness of fossilized shark teeth that can be found along the sandy beaches and floating in the waves. Black, white, brown, short, long, fat, thin, sharp or dull, every tooth differs from the others. Since the 20,000-25,000 teeth a shark will produce over it's lifetime don't have roots in the mouth, they fall out pretty easily during shark meals.

With the help of some cheap, sand sifting beach toys, we found a grand total of approximately 160 teeth over the course of just a few early morning hours! Scoop, shake, sort, dump and repeat. Most of the teeth were tiny, which meant watching for them very carefully amidst all the shells, sand, and water.

We started out just at the edge of the Gulf waters.

We ended up out waist-deep, soaked and freezing by the end, LOL

Photos don't really show the shaking hands and purple fingernails :)

As you can see, no two teeth are exactly the same!

Big Bro #1 found 21 teeth

Big Bro #2 found a whopping 52 teeth

Yours truly found 16...and watched several more float away out of reach, LOL

Little Sis found more than these 18 teeth, but gave some to the little boys.

Little Bro's collection of teeth he, Maleah and Dad found. True to his creative little self, he attempted to display them in the shape of a shark.

Littlest Bro found 16 teeth!

What we will do with our shark teeth hasn't been decided yet, but I hope to turn at least a few of them into some cool beachy jewelry. We all agreed that hunting them was a bit addictive, so maybe we'll go out on the Atlantic side of Florida to hunt for more.

Until next time, God bless!