Hi everyone! I hope you’re all doing great and having a wonderful day while you read this. I was sitting here thinking about how summer is around the bend and families are going to be heading to the beach soon. There are so many fun things to do at the beach! Building sand castles, swimming in the ocean, using a metal detector to find ‘trashures’, eating ice cream, finding beautiful sea shells, daring each other to pick up the little crab you found. All fun things to do. But there IS one thing that I love to do at the beach. Something that is truly a wonderful hobby…I love finding shark’s teeth! Not the fresh ones that are still in the shark of course, I’m talking about the ones that the shark is done with! So let’s talk about the fun hobby of finding shark’s teeth at the beach.
First off, make sure the beach you are going to allows you to take fossils and shells (some beaches don’t want you to take anything). If you’re good to go then slather on some sunscreen and it’s time to hit the tide line. What you’re looking for black triangles tumbling in the surf. They should stand out against the sand as the waves move them in and out. Another good tip is to find areas where lots of shells have been gathered up. These spots will collect more than just shells, if you dig around you can probably net one or two shark’s teeth. There are fresh toothy colored shark teeth at the beach, but these will be a lot harder to see against the sand. The older teeth have undergone fossilization and they should be black or dark gray or maybe even a deep tan color. These teeth will be much easier to see.
A good time to check is during low tide. The water recedes and you’ll find all kinds of treasures left behind. Now it’s important to point out that when you’re looking for shark’s teeth you have to focus on finding shark’s teeth. This sounds simple, but if you start looking at all the shells and picking those up, you’re more than likely going to pass right by your sharky treasures.
If the water is clear you can throw on some goggles, grab a snorkel and go looking for the teeth a little further from shore. Just be careful not to drift out too far, and watch out for stingrays, they don’t like it when you poke them…
Here’s a brief identification guide to some of the shark’s teeth you might find:
OK so my biggest piece of advice is to have fun! You might go out to the beach and find a shark’s tooth in the first five minutes. You might go for hours without finding one. You might not find one all day. But the important thing is to remember that you’re on vacation and you’re there to have fun! If you absolutely have to have a shark’s tooth, there is probably a gift store nearby that has a bucket of them for you to sift through and they are generally pretty cheap. Well, that’s about it for fun tips to finding shark’s teeth. Once you find one, you’ll get the hang of it and before you know it you’ll have a bunch of them so happy hunting and have a blessed day!
