Day Trippin' — Hunting for shark teeth at Caspersen Beach

If you have a sense of adventure and don’t mind a little hard work, Caspersen Beach, along the coast of Venice, is the place for you. Here, the beach is riddled with shark teeth year round, and many tourist venture to this spot for exactly that reason. In this week's day trip, I packed my gear and headed south to see what I could find.

It can be harder to find teeth during the busier times of the year, but there's always an abundance of teeth to be found if you’re committed to looking and come prepared with a sifter of some sort. A lot of folks only walk 20 feet out of the beach entryway and start digging for teeth, but if you walk a bit further (a half mile or so) you can hit the jackpot.

You only need to go about 5 feet into the water and use a strainer or a Florida shovel to strain the sand from the shells. Once you get a large amount of shells, head back to the sandy beach and look through your collection — you're sure to find some shark teeth among other miscellaneous fossils.

In my short hour-and-a-half trip on a weekday morning, I managed to obtain about 50 teeth. I recommend this time of day, because it’s less crowded and cooler, which makes the whole experience that much more enjoyable!