Venice's Beach Got Wider This Summer. What Happened to the Shark Teeth?

In March 2005, a Herald-Tribune reporter stood in the surf off Venice and watched a family of Canadian visitors sift wet shell hash for tiny black triangles. They found three small teeth in ten minutes and were thrilled. A veteran local hunter told the same reporter that before Venice started pumping sand onto its beaches, that much time and effort would have turned up four times as many teeth.

That story is worth digging up again this fall. Venice just finished its biggest sand placement in more than a decade. The beaches you can drive to and park at are now the ones with the most new sand sitting on top of the old tooth beds. The stretch outside the project is open only to people who walk or bike in.

What went onto the beach between June and August

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ran the Venice Shore Protection Project 2026, and Weeks Marine did the work under a $27,495,000 contract, all of it federally funded. Dredging at the offshore borrow area started June 21. Sand placement ended August 16, after Weeks Marine had placed nearly 620,000 cubic yards.

According to the City of Venice project page, the project covered about 3.2 miles of shoreline. The city lists the affected beaches as everything from the Humphris Park South Jetty to South Brohard Park, including Venice Beach and Service Club Park. The sand came from a borrow area about 11 nautical miles southwest of the project, off the coast of Englewood. It replaces sand lost to erosion and storms since the last renourishment in 2015.

On September 28, WWSB reported that the city and the Corps planned a ribbon-cutting to mark the project's completion. The city's own log was still listing work after that. Its September 30 update said Weeks Marine expected to finish rock remediation and sand tilling across the project area by late October.

What the earlier rounds of sand did to tooth hunting

Shark teeth end up on Venice beaches because of geology. As WWSB explained in a September 24 guide, the city sits along the Peace River Formation, a submerged layer full of prehistoric marine life. Waves and tides erode that old seabed and wash fossil teeth into the surf.

Renourishment puts a thick layer of new material between that source and the waterline. The 2005 Herald-Tribune story, republished by The Ledger, quoted the mayor at the time, Dean Calamaras:

"There are fewer shark teeth because we put 200 feet of sand where there was none before. You still find them on the beach. You just don't find them in such high numbers."

The same story had a more hopeful detail. Reinhardt Badow, then chair of the science department at Bayshore High School in Bradenton, said the sand from the earlier project did contain some shark teeth, though "nothing particularly great." He also said the next project would bury the native teeth even deeper.

That's the precedent for this season. On the new beach, you'll mostly be sifting sand dredged off Englewood this summer, plus whatever the waves rework out of it over the winter. A year of hunting will show whether the 2026 sand repeats the pattern from 2005. In 2005, the same story called Caspersen Beach an unrestored beach with better odds for tooth hunters, and Caspersen was left out of the 2026 project too.

The map south of the pier, this season

Brohard Paw Park was closed for much of late summer. Sarasota County kept its beach portion shut during sand placement and rock remediation and reviewed the situation daily. The city's September 30 update said tilling would mean more temporary closures there, with dates to be announced. If you're bringing a dog, check the project page's update log before you load the car.

Getting to Caspersen without a car

Caspersen's situation has nothing to do with this summer's sand. Sarasota County's park page says the Harbor Drive access washed out during the 2024 storm season. The restrooms, vehicle parking and playground are closed until repairs are made. The park is open to pedestrians and cyclists from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The county lists two ways in:

1. From South Brohard Park. Walk south along the beach from the end of the renourished stretch.
2. From the Venetian Waterway Park Trail, starting at the City of Venice Festival Grounds. This works well by bike, with a bag holding your sifter and water, since there are no restrooms at the other end.

Don't expect a quick fix. YourSun reported that the county had no decision or timetable on whether or where to rebuild the road. Design and engineering hadn't started while the county weighed the park's future, and the road was described as a multiyear project.

So on the one natural beach nearby, getting there takes the most effort, and that probably keeps the crowds smaller.

Working the sand you've got

The same technique works on new fill. The WWSB segment brought along the family behind Shark Frenzy and Fossil Frenzy, and their method fits a beach that's still settling.

• Look for gravel. Work the dense, dark shell beds and coarse sediment where the waves tumble onto shore.
• Scoop and rinse. Dig into wet shell hash and let the Gulf wash the fine sand through the mesh.
• Watch for shine. Look for smooth enamel, triangular points and root shapes. Fossil teeth here are jet black, slate gray or charcoal, not the white of a modern shark's tooth.

The station also listed common finds, including lemon, bull, tiger, mako and snaggletooth shark teeth. Lucky hunters turn up stingray mouth plates, barracuda teeth, or now and then a chip of megalodon.

Taking your finds downtown

Several shops near downtown Venice will help you figure out what you found. Shark Frenzy at 262 Tamiami Trail S. and Fossil Frenzy at 272 Miami Ave. W. sell sifting gear and fossils, and their staff give hunting advice and identify finds. The family behind both shops co-invented the floating Shark Tooth Sifter in 2013.

Earth Treasures has moved within downtown's Miami Avenue to 235 Miami Ave. W., according to Venice MainStreet. The new space combines the shop with the in-store Venice Fossil Museum, which is free and gives every visitor a real fossil. That's a good backup if the sifter comes up empty.

You don't need a permit to keep shark teeth. The Florida Museum of Natural History says fossil shark and ray teeth are exempt from the state's fossil-permit rules, even on state land. Other vertebrate fossils collected on state-owned or leased land require a Florida Fossil Permit. Collecting isn't allowed in state parks, national wildlife refuges, national parks or national forests, and the museum recommends checking local rules for county and city land. This is general information, not legal advice, so confirm the rules with the agency that manages the land before you keep anything other than a tooth.

Dates on the calendar

Sea turtle nesting season ends this Saturday, October 31. During construction, the city said Mote Marine Laboratory would monitor the beaches and relocate any nests in the project area. The same weekend, October 31 and November 1, the free 38th Annual Downtown Venice Art Festival brings more than 100 artists to the 200 and 300 blocks of West Venice Avenue, a short walk from the Miami Avenue fossil shops.

The Venice Shark's Tooth Festival has set April 10–11, 2027, as its dates, and its online vendor application opens in mid-December 2026. By April, the new beach will have had a winter of storms and waves to work on it, and that should give a clearer read on what this summer's sand holds.

If you want to talk through which stretch of the Venice shoreline fits how you like to spend your mornings, from the walk-in quiet at Caspersen to the renourished beach near the pier, Keith Curcio is glad to compare notes. Let's Connect.