- September 12, 2024
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Despite living in landlocked Lakewood Ranch, it’s the rivers and beaches that it’s difficult to get 9-year-old Bayne Cannonito away from.
Like his parents Joe and Sherri Cannonito, he loves spending the weekends in search of sharks' teeth.
Joe says on each trip, Bayne will be uttering the phrase, “Just one more shark tooth, I promise.”
The family is among those in or near Sarasota who have discovered a love of shark tooth hunting, and they sell the teeth they collect through their business, Sherri’s Shark Shop.
It just so happens that Sarasota is a neighbor to the “Shark’s Tooth Capital of the World.”
The Venice area is known for its abundance of sharks' teeth.
The city has long held its annual Venice Shark’s Tooth Festival, however, charter captain Ron Gauthier, a resident of North Sarasota, had been keen on bringing such an event to Sarasota.
Last weekend, from Aug. 26 to 27, Gauthier hosted the second annual Sarasota Sharks Tooth Festival, where Sherri’s Shark Shop was an event vendor, at Robarts Arena.
“Sarasota needs it because we're all a bunch of fossilheads,” Gauthier said. “Here, we go looking in home lots. We look in where they’re digging the lakes. We go out east and go on the river. We go to Venice and do it. We go to the Carolinas and do it. But nothing comes to Sarasota. And I was just like, how come?”
Meanwhile, at the Sarasota Shell Club, members enjoy numerous field trips, some of which take them to southern areas such as Venice, in search of teeth.
They are able to showcase their finds in the annual Sarasota Shell Club Shell Show, which offers a combination of artistic and scientific displays.
“People always, always want to see shark teeth," said Karen Huether, vice president of the club, who has many teeth in her large collection of marine items.
Teeth of many shark species, both fossilized and non-fossilized, can be found nearby, she said, but she noted there is one tooth in particular that hunters seek.
“The Holy Grail of fossilized sharks’ teeth is the Megalodon, because it’s the biggest shark there ever was,” she said.
Having lived 3.6 million to 23 million years ago, the extinct species of mackerel shark is the largest fish known to have existed, with estimates placing its length at as long as 67 feet.
The fossilized teeth themselves can be several inches long.
Indeed, the abundance of sharks' teeth in Venice dates back millions of years, to a time when Florida was submerged in an area home to the ancestors of species such as great white, mako, bull and tiger sharks.
“It's like an adventure to go out to try to find something that is that old and it’s still in good shape,” Huether said.
“It is a very fun hobby. It’s very addicting; very addicting,” said Sherri Cannonito.
It's a pure love of the ocean that drives many collectors.
In fact, Sarasota resident Gordon Fushikoshi has even found a way to use sharks' teeth to creatively express that love, which he found while growing up in Lahaina, Hawaii.
A vendor at the Sarasota Sharks Tooth Festival, he owns the business SRQ Shark Art, based at The Bazaar on Apricot and Lime.
“That’s my Disneyland when I was growing up. Being in the ocean, fishing and diving. Everything with the ocean,” he said.
Fushikoshi describes the day a humpback whale appeared and swam alongside his boat for 45 minutes, and he jumped into the water and swam with it, as “the most epic day of my life.”
In the 1990s, he visited Sarasota and became hooked on sharks' teeth after enjoying the abundance of shells in locations like Lido Key, and then came to call Sarasota home, which he now has for over 20 years.
Now, his home is filled with thousands of teeth, although he always enjoys heading out to collect more whenever he can.
Eventually, he decided to get creative.
“When red tide and COVID hit, I had to find a hobby, and I couldn't go to the beach and collect shells,” said Fushikoshi, who belongs to the Sarasota Shell Club.
Although he was never artistic growing up, he eagerly took up the pursuit of creating figurines of ocean creatures including sharks, dolphins and others, assembled using shark’s teeth.
“It’s kind of like a puzzle, a jigsaw puzzle. You find the shape and you just kind of push it in,” he said.
Joe Cannonito said his love of sharks likewise comes from his childhood.
One of his fondest memories of his father, who died in 1990 when he was 7 years old, is is watching the “Jaws” films with him.
“I've been a shark fanatic since probably my first memory,” he said.
Today, he’s passing on the tradition of watching “Jaws” with Bayne.
Something else Bayne can take away from his experiences with his family is the profits of the business, registered under his name, which go exclusively toward his college fund.
When hunting shark' 'teeth, the first step is knowing where to look.
When Joe and Sherri Cannonito were married in 2010 and went on a honeymoon covering almost the eastern half of the United States, they’d heard about the reputation of Venice, but weren't convinced it would live up to what they'd been told.
“I'm like, people are pulling our chain, and there wasn't a lot of information on the web at that time about Caspersen and Brohard (beaches),” Joe Cannonito said.
After visiting Venice, however, they ended up staying for three days.
The sharks' teeth flow from the rivers, into the Gulf, Huether said, noting that after a storm is the best time to search.
Peace River, a location where the Cannonitos hunt “religiously,” is well-known for sharks' teeth, she noted.
She said those visiting Venice will need to dive to find teeth, and recommends Englewood and Caspersen beaches as an alternative.
Fushikoshi said one of his favorite places is the private island Don Pedro Island in Charlotte County.
That doesn’t mean that sharks' teeth aren't found in Sarasota, however. Even locations such as Siesta Key can sometimes wield treasures.
“I’ve found a few on Turtle Beach,” Fusikoshi said.
In fact, that Cannonitos say they’ve even found teeth far inland, in Lakewood Ranch.
They note that they never trespass on construction sites, a felony and a practice of some unethical shark tooth hunters.
Heavy scooping and sifting are involved in the hunting.
The Cannonito family has even built their own sifters from wood and chicken wire, with pool noodles attached.
It's not just about the teeth, however. Something the Cannonito family has found amid their hunting is friends and community.
Joe said while they are out hunting, Bayne will talk with older people about sharks' teeth.
When he sees kids that are trying to find their first teeth, who do not have the necessary tools, he’ll offer them some of his own teeth.
“That's what we taught our son, have fun, but also give back and show others how to have fun,” he said.
