My husband Brandon and I have gone diving at Venice, FL once before -- just under a year ago, with Captain Steve Thacker and Marie aboard Florida West Scuba School's Hammerhead. We had a great time, found some goodies (including several megalodon teeth), and started counting down until the next time we could go out fossil-hunting.
Yesterday was the big day. We woke up at four-thirty in the morning in order to get ready, get on the road, and get to Florida West Scuba by eight AM, and, despite being groggy, we were excited to get back out in the water again. I had to quit my job at a local aquarium back in December and hadn't been diving since, so I was definitely looking forward to our two dives.
My first dive started out horribly. After about fifteen minutes down, I got the line from my dive flag looped over the anchor line, and, when I came up to free it, I managed to tangle myself up like a manatee in a crab trap line. As I moved to the rear of the boat so Steve and Marie could help me out, I realized that my tank had come loose, and then I dropped my freaking mask. I wanted to curl up and die from embarrassment -- I've been diving since I was eighteen years old, and I was making these awful rookie mistakes in front of the captain and his mate. Flustered beyond belief, I entertained the idea of just calling it quits and hauling my butt back on the boat, but, with a spare mask loaned to me by the lovely Marie, I went back down to try my luck.
And I'm so glad I did.
Within just a few minutes, I pulled this beauty off the sea floor:
It's not intact, there are only a couple of specks of enamel left on it, and the serrations are long gone, but it's HUGE. The base is about four and a half inches across, and Steve estimates that, if the tip wasn't broken off, the tooth would be about seven inches long.
Here's an admittedly crappy cell phone picture taken in the car on the way home that shows you the tooth in its entirety:
I didn't find much on the second dive -- a couple of smaller megs, a whale vertebrae, and some miscellaneous shark teeth -- but, really, with a find like this one on the first dive, asking for more would just be greedy. =) Brandon, like last time, found the pretty, intact, serrated teeth; if we could only combine our powers to find pretty, intact, serrated, HUGE teeth, we'd be in business!
Our teeth and other fossils have been soaking in apple cider vinegar overnight to break up the gunk, and now I'm in the process of photographing the big meg in my photo box. Once I get the photos cleaned up, I'll post more of 'em.
Thanks again to Captain Steve Thacker and Marie for showing us another great time! We'll definitely be back.
Yesterday was the big day. We woke up at four-thirty in the morning in order to get ready, get on the road, and get to Florida West Scuba by eight AM, and, despite being groggy, we were excited to get back out in the water again. I had to quit my job at a local aquarium back in December and hadn't been diving since, so I was definitely looking forward to our two dives.
My first dive started out horribly. After about fifteen minutes down, I got the line from my dive flag looped over the anchor line, and, when I came up to free it, I managed to tangle myself up like a manatee in a crab trap line. As I moved to the rear of the boat so Steve and Marie could help me out, I realized that my tank had come loose, and then I dropped my freaking mask. I wanted to curl up and die from embarrassment -- I've been diving since I was eighteen years old, and I was making these awful rookie mistakes in front of the captain and his mate. Flustered beyond belief, I entertained the idea of just calling it quits and hauling my butt back on the boat, but, with a spare mask loaned to me by the lovely Marie, I went back down to try my luck.
And I'm so glad I did.
Within just a few minutes, I pulled this beauty off the sea floor:
It's not intact, there are only a couple of specks of enamel left on it, and the serrations are long gone, but it's HUGE. The base is about four and a half inches across, and Steve estimates that, if the tip wasn't broken off, the tooth would be about seven inches long.
Here's an admittedly crappy cell phone picture taken in the car on the way home that shows you the tooth in its entirety:
I didn't find much on the second dive -- a couple of smaller megs, a whale vertebrae, and some miscellaneous shark teeth -- but, really, with a find like this one on the first dive, asking for more would just be greedy. =) Brandon, like last time, found the pretty, intact, serrated teeth; if we could only combine our powers to find pretty, intact, serrated, HUGE teeth, we'd be in business!
Our teeth and other fossils have been soaking in apple cider vinegar overnight to break up the gunk, and now I'm in the process of photographing the big meg in my photo box. Once I get the photos cleaned up, I'll post more of 'em.
Thanks again to Captain Steve Thacker and Marie for showing us another great time! We'll definitely be back.
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