I Found Megalodon Teeth While Scuba Diving in Venice Florida

The warm clear water of the Gulf of Mexico off the southwest Florida coast next to Venice Florida is one of the best places in the world to scuba dive for megalodon teeth. Millions of years ago the giant prehistoric shark lived, bred, and fed here and their fossilized teeth are scattered across the bottom just waiting for divers to descend 30 feet and pick them up. Sharks constantly lose and replace their teeth their whole lives, and it happened for millions of years all over Florida, particularly Venice. So millions of sharks losing millions of teeth for millions of years means they are piled up on the bottom of the gulf, stacked like sardines right? Not quite. While there are a lot of teeth down there, the area has been heavily collected for decades so there aren't as many as there used to be, but luckily the ocean floor is a dynamic place. Storms churn up the sediment and new teeth get exposed and no matter how many are found, there always seems to be more to find. Every time I have gone, someone on the boat has found a complete megalodon tooth. This trip I dived for four days. I did ok on my past 3 days, I haven't come back with an empty dive bag any day, but the big one has eluded me. Today was my last shot at finding a large shark tooth so I swam like there is no tomorrow because for me, there isn't! I'm going home! All tanked up, I sat on the edge of the boat, ready to roll in backwards. The captain gave me the go ahead. Time to dive! Splash! I surfaced briefly to signal OK, and then I dumped the air from my buoyancy compensator (BC) and the bottom came into view quickly with the amazing conditions. It was exhilarating! My eyes darted from side to side, scanning the bottom, looking for big triangles, smooth edges, U shapes. There's one. Then another. Then... YES! Trip maker.