jwvanno
Contributor
Hi there all.
I've been lurking behind the scenes on this board for a few months, learning and enjoying everyones posts, but I've never had a reason to post myself till now.
As a result of the reports posted on this board, I've made the drive to Venice three weekends in a row, from the Cocoa Beach area, searching for shark's teeth off the beach and have had reasonable luck. I've picked up over 200 small teeth from the Alhambra site, and two smaller Meg fragments that made me wish I had unlimited tanks to keep searching.
Yesterday, drove over again and I took a trip with Florida West Scuba on board Hammerhead. Captain Steve and the crew were great and made everyone feel like VIPs. It was a great boat and a great crew.
Seas were 2 feet or less with wind from the East at 5-10 and had been all week, so visibility was in the 15-18 foot range. It was excellent!
I tended to hover very close to the bottom looking for small teeth, since I didn't really expect to be lucky enough to find any large teeth. So as I was picking up sand tigers and makos, I grabbed a near perfect meg tooth around three inches. It rivals anything Florida West has on display in the shop!! I spent 45 seconds or so looking at it, and smiling so big I was leaking water around my reg. I thought to myself that I've made the trips all worth it, and had found a great tooth. I stuffed it into my bag, and made sure the zipper was closed, and went on thinking I could just relax now, and look at the Gulf wildlife that we don't get to see here on the East Coast. (I've never seen a Leopard Searobin over here, but saw 10 or 12 of them yesterday.)
So I was cruising along, picking up more teeth, listening to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon on the MP3 player, and about 6 minutes later I grabbed a 5 inch tooth out of the silt!! I must have blown 500psi of air out of the tank, kneeling on the bottom yelling and screaming to myself for near two minutes!!! I bet I looked like a fool yelling and shaking that tooth in front of my mask!!
I was all smiles as I boarded the boat after the dive, and Cap Steve was really happy and made sure that everyone that boarded after me saw my big tooth. (I guess it's good marketing if others see what your boat has "produced".
)
I finished the day with a total of 2 near perfect teeth and another 4 that were chipped or well worn, all around 3 inches, in addition to my 5 inch and 150 or so smaller teeth and Meg fragments.
I recommend the Hammerhead and it's crew, and thank everyone here who has posted about Venice locations and info...
I now have a dive and an artifact that I will always remember!!
BTW: I have had all the teeth soaking in fresh water for the last 12 hours or so, and I've changed the water every 4 hours or when I walk by the bowl, but is there anything else I should do to "preserve" the teeth that have been under water for over 2 million years?!?!? I surely don't want it to disintigrate 6 months from now, becuase I messed it up....
I figured the freshwater bath was not going to harm anything, but is there anything else I should do??
THANKS again to everyone here. I've learned a lot from all of you.
I've been lurking behind the scenes on this board for a few months, learning and enjoying everyones posts, but I've never had a reason to post myself till now.
As a result of the reports posted on this board, I've made the drive to Venice three weekends in a row, from the Cocoa Beach area, searching for shark's teeth off the beach and have had reasonable luck. I've picked up over 200 small teeth from the Alhambra site, and two smaller Meg fragments that made me wish I had unlimited tanks to keep searching.
Yesterday, drove over again and I took a trip with Florida West Scuba on board Hammerhead. Captain Steve and the crew were great and made everyone feel like VIPs. It was a great boat and a great crew.
Seas were 2 feet or less with wind from the East at 5-10 and had been all week, so visibility was in the 15-18 foot range. It was excellent!
I tended to hover very close to the bottom looking for small teeth, since I didn't really expect to be lucky enough to find any large teeth. So as I was picking up sand tigers and makos, I grabbed a near perfect meg tooth around three inches. It rivals anything Florida West has on display in the shop!! I spent 45 seconds or so looking at it, and smiling so big I was leaking water around my reg. I thought to myself that I've made the trips all worth it, and had found a great tooth. I stuffed it into my bag, and made sure the zipper was closed, and went on thinking I could just relax now, and look at the Gulf wildlife that we don't get to see here on the East Coast. (I've never seen a Leopard Searobin over here, but saw 10 or 12 of them yesterday.)
So I was cruising along, picking up more teeth, listening to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon on the MP3 player, and about 6 minutes later I grabbed a 5 inch tooth out of the silt!! I must have blown 500psi of air out of the tank, kneeling on the bottom yelling and screaming to myself for near two minutes!!! I bet I looked like a fool yelling and shaking that tooth in front of my mask!!
I was all smiles as I boarded the boat after the dive, and Cap Steve was really happy and made sure that everyone that boarded after me saw my big tooth. (I guess it's good marketing if others see what your boat has "produced".
)I finished the day with a total of 2 near perfect teeth and another 4 that were chipped or well worn, all around 3 inches, in addition to my 5 inch and 150 or so smaller teeth and Meg fragments.
I recommend the Hammerhead and it's crew, and thank everyone here who has posted about Venice locations and info...
I now have a dive and an artifact that I will always remember!!
BTW: I have had all the teeth soaking in fresh water for the last 12 hours or so, and I've changed the water every 4 hours or when I walk by the bowl, but is there anything else I should do to "preserve" the teeth that have been under water for over 2 million years?!?!? I surely don't want it to disintigrate 6 months from now, becuase I messed it up....
I figured the freshwater bath was not going to harm anything, but is there anything else I should do??
THANKS again to everyone here. I've learned a lot from all of you.
