Venice Beach Has New Sand This Fall. So Where Did the Shark Teeth Go?

"There are fewer shark teeth because we put 200 feet of sand where there was none before," then-Mayor Dean Calamaras told The Ledger in March 2005, just before the city's second beach restoration. "You still find them on the beach. You just don't find them in such high numbers."

Twenty-one years later, Venice has done it again. The beach from the Humphris Park South Jetty to South Brohard Park is noticeably wider this fall. That extra width is also why the dark gravel lines that serious collectors work have gotten harder to find. The teeth are still there, buried under the new fill. Getting them back on the waterline depends on the weather this season brings. Meanwhile, the closest beach the project skipped has no vehicle parking available right now.

What Weeks Marine Left on the Beach This Summer

The 2026 Venice Shore Protection Project was managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and built by Weeks Marine, Inc. It renourished about 3.2 miles of shoreline, from south of Venice Inlet to south of the Venice Fishing Pier. The construction contract came to $27,495,000, all of it federally funded. According to the City of Venice project page, the work covered every beach from the Humphris Park South Jetty to South Brohard Park, which includes Venice Beach and Service Club Park.

The sand came from an offshore borrow area about 11 nautical miles southwest of the project's center, off the coast of Englewood. Dredging began June 21. Sand placement ended August 16, and by then Weeks Marine said it had placed nearly 620,000 cubic yards. City Stormwater Engineering Manager Steven Berens told WWSB that "the widened beach provides significant protection for the entire community during hurricanes." The city marked completion at the Venice Beach Pavilion on October 2, with speakers from the Corps' Jacksonville District and Mote Marine Laboratory.

The last renourishment of this beach was in 2015, and the city's agreement with the Corps calls for one roughly every 10 years. So this is the first fall in more than a decade that collectors are working fresh, unsorted fill.

Why a Wider Beach Hides the Teeth

Venice's fossils come from the Peace River Formation, a submerged layer full of prehistoric marine life. As waves and tides wear down that ancient seabed, fossil teeth wash into the surf. A WWSB beginner's guide from late September describes them as "jet black, slate gray, and deep charcoal." White modern teeth look nothing like them.

The teeth are dense phosphate, so the Gulf sorts them. Light sand washes away and heavy material settles in dark bands of shell hash and gravel along the waterline. A renourishment covers that sorted layer with thick, unsorted fill. An October 7 analysis on SharkToothHunting.com uses Venice's 2026 project as its case study. It says the fossils are covered, not destroyed, and that a new fill is at its worst the week it's placed and improves from there.

The 2005 reporting describes the same pattern. A veteran hunter told The Ledger that sand from the 1996 project "did have some shark teeth . . . but nothing particularly great," and that each restoration buried the native teeth deeper. The city has not said whether this year's Englewood borrow sand carried fossils of its own. For now, the reliable source of teeth is the old sorted layer, and it is buried.

The Shoreline, Stretch by Stretch

The project had a clear southern end. Here is how the coast splits this fall.

The bottom row is the one that matters this fall. Caspersen was outside the 2026 project area, so its sorted gravel was never covered.

Caspersen, Reached on Foot

Getting to Caspersen is harder than it used to be. Sarasota County says the Harbor Drive access to Caspersen Beach Park washed out in the 2024 storm season. Restrooms, vehicle parking and the playground are closed until repairs are made. The park is open to people on foot and on bikes, from two directions: South Brohard Park, or the Venetian Waterway Park Trail at the City of Venice Festival Grounds. Hours are 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The county's listing gives no reopening date for vehicles, so plan around the current arrangement. Coming from South Brohard means a walk south along the shore from the end of the new fill. Coming from the Festival Grounds means a ride or walk down the trail. With no restrooms at the park, bring whatever you need.

The trail route is also worth trying for its own sake once the weather cools. The city's season-opening group bicycle ride on November 12 follows a route of nearly seven miles that includes the Venetian Waterway Park trail.

What Brings the Gravel Back

According to the SharkToothHunting.com analysis, normal waves slowly rework a new beach, while cold fronts and tropical systems speed that up a lot. It gives no fixed recovery timetable. For the renourished stretch, that puts the timing on the calendar. Each autumn front that pushes heavier surf onto Venice Beach and Service Club Park reworks more of this summer's fill.

When the gravel lines start showing again, the technique the WWSB guide credits to the team behind Shark Frenzy and Fossil Frenzy still applies:

1. Target the gravel. Work the dense, dark shell beds and coarse sediment right where the waves break on shore.
2. Scoop and rinse. Dig into the wet shell hash and let the Gulf wash the fine sand out through the mesh.
3. Spot the gloss. Look through what's left for smooth enamel, triangular points and root shapes that stand out from broken shell.

The same report says common finds include teeth from ancient lemon, bull, tiger, mako and snaggletooth sharks, plus the occasional stingray mouth plate or a chip of megalodon. The father-and-son team behind those shops co-invented the floating Shark Tooth Sifter in 2013. Their stores double as places where hunters can bring finds to be identified. The shops list Shark Frenzy at 262 Tamiami Trail S and Fossil Frenzy at 272 Miami Ave W. Both are a short drive from the beach, which helps on a morning when the new sand turns up something you can't identify.

The Last Days of October on the Beach

A few loose ends on the beach strip are wrapping up around now. The city's September 30 update expected Weeks Marine to finish rock remediation and sand tilling across the project area by late October. Its October 6 notice closed Brohard Paw Park's beach access for one day, October 7, for tilling. Before taking a dog down to the Paw Park, check the update log on the city's renourishment page. It is the most direct record of short closures.

Sea turtle nesting season runs from May 1 through October 31, and Mote Marine monitored and relocated nests throughout construction. By September 30, the nests near the last onshore sand pipes had hatched, which cleared the contractor to remove those pipes.

The weekend nesting season ends is also the 38th Annual Downtown Venice Art Festival, Saturday, October 31 and Sunday, November 1. It runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the 200 and 300 blocks of West Venice Avenue, hosted by Venice MainStreet and Howard Alan Events. If the hunt is slow, the bar at Sharky's on the Pier still has fossils on display. When Sharky's refurbished its Tiki Bar in a $2.5 million renovation that Hurricanes Helene and Milton pushed past its original November 2024 target, local artists made a custom bar top set with shark's teeth.

We follow changes like this summer's sand because they shape how Venice's coast gets used day to day. If you'd like to talk about life near Venice's beaches, from the stretches the new sand covered to the one it skipped, Thompson Group Sarasota would be glad to hear from you. Schedule a Private Consultation.