Sharks tooth/fossil hunting

[dsaavedra]

This is a little off topic but I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for places to go sharks tooth/fossil hunting? Accessible by foot or kayak - don't have a power boat. I'm willing to drive 1-2hr from Anne Arundel County, maybe a little further. I've been to Calvert Cliffs state park a couple times and I get the impression that place just gets way too much traffic to be any good.

[J.A. Veil]

We have gone to Breezy Point public beach. Try to get there at low tide. Even better is if there had been a storm the previous day. My wife does not enjoy water sports, but she does like hunting for sharks teeth. We never found a big one there, but once your eyes adjust to the search image, you can get quite a few small ones in an hour's searching.

[dsaavedra]

Thanks for the suggestion John. My wife and I are planning a trip for our anniversary. She has never found a sharks tooth before, so finding even just one would be a win.

[DanMarino]

Cool topic. I have always wanted to find some too.

[UnkleRob2020]

Dave, it's been a few years, but I had success shark's tooth/fossil hunting at Westmoreland State Park. I believe that this park is about 2 hours from you. The prime area for shark's teeth at the park is called Fossil Beach and it is accessible via Big Meadow Trail (and also by kayak).

Nearby, another good area is called Shark Tooth Beach (about four miles East of Fossil Beach.

I am not an expert, but I have had luck at both.

I hope she finds one....that would be a nice anniversary treat

[dsaavedra]

Excellent. Thank you for the suggestion Rob. I've heard of Shark Tooth Island - a private island only accessible by boat and requiring a season pass - but did not know of these places nearby.

[nhunter344]

Brownies beach is also a good place. Ive never not found teeth there. Mostly small but a few in the 3/4in size as well. Ive found other non shark fossils there as well. The local township charges what I think is a hefty fee for people who dont live there, but I cant recall if thats a summer only thing. Also might want to check to see if theyve opened to the public since covid hit. (just checked, the beach is not open to the public)

A way to avoid the fee (or fines) is to kayak in and stay off the beach. The water depth there is only knee deep for at least a couple hundred yards offshore. theres a launch less than a mile to the north (Chesapeake Beach). Ive actually heard the best way to find bigger teeth there is to snorkel offshore since the bigger teeth tend to stay put while the smaller ones wash up on shore. Cant say I would recommend that with the amount of jellyfish I saw in the bay last time I was out.

Heres a link to a site I found a while back that Ive used. Maryland Fossil Sites and Collecting Localities (fossilspot.com)

[dsaavedra]

A way to avoid the fee (or fines) is to kayak in and stay off the beach. The water depth there is only knee deep for at least a couple hundred yards offshore. theres a launch less than a mile to the north (Chesapeake Beach). Ive actually heard the best way to find bigger teeth there is to snorkel offshore since the bigger teeth tend to stay put while the smaller ones wash up on shore. Cant say I would recommend that with the amount of jellyfish I saw in the bay last time I was out.

Now that is smart! I think I'll give this a shot since it's very close to home... this is something I could do any ole time without planning a whole day trip around it. Now I'm sitting here devising some sort of dredge with 1/4 - 1/2" metal mesh I can tow behind my Hobie haha!

[nhunter344]

Others might know better than I regarding property rights and shorelines in Maryland, but most states define the property line as the mean low tide line. I imagine if you stay outside of that you should be fine. I reserve the right to be completely wrong on the matter though..

[dsaavedra]

Others might know better than I regarding property rights and shorelines in Maryland, but most states define the property line as the mean low tide line. I imagine if you stay outside of that you should be fine. I reserve the right to be completely wrong on the matter though..

I've heard in MD it is the mean high water line, so mean low water should be on the conservative side

[UnkleRob2020]

I am not sure that we are referring to the same place, Dave. I could be wrong and often am...especially on this forum with the wealth of knowledge and experience. I was referring to Shark Tooth Beach, not Shark Tooth Island. I have attached a marked up drawing.

I have kayaked to both Fossil Beach and Shark Tooth Beach. I once rented a tandem kayak at Westmoreland State Park and kayaked to Fossil Beach...we then tried to make it to Shark Tooth Beach, but didn't get very far given that we were frequently going in circles and arguing over whose fault it was :--)

[ski357]

Go to the Dollar Store and get a plastic colander to sift the sand!

[Red_Beard]

I am not sure that we are referring to the same place, Dave. I could be wrong and often am...especially on this forum with the wealth of knowledge and experience. I was referring to Shark Tooth Beach, not Shark Tooth Island. I have attached a marked up drawing.

I have kayaked to both Fossil Beach and Shark Tooth Beach. I once rented a tandem kayak at Westmoreland State Park and kayaked to Fossil Beach...we then tried to make it to Shark Tooth Beach, but didn't get very far given that we were frequently going in circles and arguing over whose fault it was :--)

Rob, I grew up just minutes from that area. What you are calling Shark Tooth Beach is in fact Shark Tooth Island. Its the best spot for shark tooth fossils I've ever seen, largely because its private and you need a boat or kayak to get there. To be honest, the owners don't patrol it that much. They'll usually show up on summer weekends to walk around and collect fees from local folks that visit it a lot during the summer.

[Slackdaddy]

My son used to play LL baseball with a boy who's family owned land with a creek running through it, this was near Dunkirk (MD), right at RT 4,, the creek eventually emptied into the Pax river.
A few days after a heavy rain,, they would walk the creek and find HUGE sharks teeth,, Actually I thing the were megalodon teeth.
I would have never thought they would be that far from the water.

[dsaavedra]

I thought I'd follow up after our trip. We ended up visiting the Calvert Cliffs and while we did not find a ton of teeth, I think the ones we found were good quality. The "trip maker", which is the lingo in the fossil hunting world, was a 1.25" Carcharodon hastalis tooth. I was not expecting to find anything nearly this large or pretty. Also of note was the nearly complete Ecphora shell. This is Maryland's state fossil and it's somewhat rare to find more than just fragments of it (which we also found).

Below is my attempt at identifying the teeth and other fossils based on reference from here https://www.fossilguy.com/sites/calvert/index.htm. The fossils are shown on 1/4" grid paper. I'm not super confident in my identification of the tiger, requiem, and lemon shark teeth, but they look close to me.

All in all this was a very fun trip and I'll definitely be taking up shark tooth hunting as a new hobby - in my mind there many parallels to fishing which make it an attractive hobby to me. I've already invested in tools to make it more ergonomic... all the hunching and crouching made my back and legs very sore for a day or two.

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