"There are fewer shark teeth because we put 200 feet of sand where there was none before," then-Mayor Dean Calamaras told a reporter in March 2005. "You still find them on the beach. You just don't find them in such high numbers."
Twenty-one years later the city has done it again, and on a bigger scale. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Venice Shore Protection Project 2026 finished dredging and sand placement on August 16. Contractor Weeks Marine said it put nearly 620,000 cubic yards of sand on the beach. The fill covers about 3.2 miles, from the Humphris Park South Jetty to South Brohard Park, and it replaces sand lost to erosion and storms since the last project in 2015.
That's good news for the beach, the dunes and the buildings behind them. For shark-tooth hunting in the self-named Shark Tooth Capital of the World, it means the best spots have moved. Those three miles were built to be wide, so this fall the hunt shifts to the waterline and to the beach just past the project's southern end.
Why new sand covers the teeth
Venice wasn't formed like Siesta Key or Casey Key, its barrier-island neighbors. In the same 2005 story, Cliff Truitt, a beach renourishment consultant with Coastal Technologies in Sarasota, explained that the water around Venice was calmer when this coast took shape thousands of years ago. That calm water let fossils like shark teeth settle into the sediment. He said those teeth are still there, under 15 to 20 feet of sand.
So the teeth come from the old ground under the beach, not from the sand on top of it. Every load of new sand adds another layer between your sifter and that old fossil bed.
The new sand isn't empty, though. Reinhardt Badow, a longtime shark-tooth hunter who chaired the science department at Bayshore High School in Bradenton, said the sand from Venice's first renourishment in 1996 "did have some shark teeth. .. but nothing particularly great." This year's sand came from an offshore borrow area about 11 nautical miles southwest of the project, off the coast of Englewood. Nobody has published a count of what's turning up in it yet. That's an open question for fall 2026, and the honest answer is that no one has measured it.
Badow did put numbers on what earlier projects cost hunters. He told the reporter that the two hours a visiting family spent finding two dozen teeth would have turned up about four times as many before the 1996 project. When he moved to Florida in the late 1970s, he said, "You could pick up hundreds. You could find 200 to 300 in a short period of time."
"Venice bills itself the shark's tooth capital of the world; they've even got a festival, but then they cover up all the shark's teeth." Reinhardt Badow, 2005
The city's reasons for the work are plain. The 2026 project page says it restores beach width for habitat and public use and protects upland property and infrastructure. The page lists the construction contract at $27,495,000 and says it is 100% federally funded. That makes the trade clear. You get a wider beach, and finding teeth takes more work.
The surf edge is where the hunt is now
Some teeth are still easy to find with the right method. On September 24, WWSB's Suncoast View ran a beginner's fossil hunt at Venice Beach with local pros and the family behind Shark Frenzy and Fossil Frenzy. The hunters found shark teeth within a few scoops. The report didn't say whether those teeth came from the new sand or from older layers, so treat it as proof the method works, not as a measure of the new fill.
Their method came down to a few steps:
- Look for dark shell beds and coarse sediment at the edge of the surf.
- Rinse what you scoop through a sifter.
- Scan the leftover shell hash for the shine of tooth enamel.
A family did the same thing in 2005. One family member stood thigh-deep in 65-degree Gulf water with a long-handled wire-mesh scoop. Two family members sifted on shore, tossing out shells and phosphate pebbles and keeping the small black teeth. The method was the same then, after a renourishment. It's the same now.
Caspersen sits just past the new sand
The 2026 project ends at South Brohard Park. Caspersen Beach Park is next door and outside that line. It also has a history as the hunter's backup. In 2005, Jackie Keiser, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project manager, said Caspersen "evidently doesn't have the erosion problem that Venice Beach has," and the Herald-Tribune story pointed hunters there because it hadn't been renourished. That's history, not a promise about this season. Still, it's the one nearby stretch this year's 620,000 cubic yards didn't cover.
Getting there is harder than it used to be. The Harbor Drive access washed out in the 2024 storm season. Sarasota County's park listing says the restrooms, vehicle parking and playground are closed until repairs are made. The park is open to people on foot and on bikes, from South Brohard Park or from the Venetian Waterway Park Trail at the City of Venice Festival Grounds. Hours are 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Visit Sarasota's August 3, 2026 recovery update lists the same setup, with parking at South Brohard.
Don't plan on the road coming back soon. In YourSun's reporting, county parks director Nicole Rissler said there's no timetable until the county decides whether and where to restore the road, and she called the work multiyear. Options on the table included a detour by Red Lake, a bridge, no vehicle access at all, and possibly a ferry. For now, getting to Caspersen means walking or biking, and you carry your sifter, water and anything you find.
What's still happening on the sand this October
The sand is placed, but crews are still working on it. The city's September 30 update covers what's done and what's left:
- Stormwater outfall extensions are done at Outfall 4 by Aldea Mar Condo, Outfall 7 by Golden Beach Condo, and Outfall 10 by the USCG Station.
- Outfall 1, about 400 feet south of the Venice Beach Pavilion, and Outfall 2, at Venice Sands Condo near the end of Alhambra Road, should be finished by mid-October.
- Weeks Marine expects to finish rock remediation and sand tilling across the whole project area by late October.
- Beach access at Brohard Paw Park will close temporarily while tilling is underway nearby. The city says those dates aren't known yet.
- Turtle nests near the last onshore sand pipes have hatched, so the contractor can now pull those pipes.
If you hunt teeth in the morning or walk a dog at Brohard, plan around items 3 and 4 this month. Sea turtle nesting season runs through October 31, and Mote Marine Laboratory monitored and relocated nests during construction. That means the end of turtle season and the end of on-beach work come within days of each other. The schedule has already slipped once, though. The project page originally listed a September 2026 finish. Check the city's updates before you count on a clear beach.
Where to weigh in on beach-park access
Getting to the beach is about to come up at City Hall. Venice has started a Parks Master Plan that will take about a year. Consultants have toured the city's nearly 40 parks, and the plan will look 5, 10 and 20 years ahead, covering everything from dog parks to fitness equipment. Planning and Zoning Director Roger Clark said the city wants input from residents and from people outside the city who use its parks. Venice is also getting ready to take over more parks from Sarasota County, which will factor into the plan.
Here's where city representatives will be this month:
- Sun Fiesta, Friday, Oct. 16, 5 to 8 p.m., Centennial Park, 200 W. Venice Ave.
- Venice FL Farmers Market, Saturday, Oct. 17, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Venice City Hall, 401 W. Venice Ave.
- Workshop, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 5:30 to 7 p.m., City Hall Community Hall
- Workshop, Thursday, Oct. 29, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., City Hall Community Hall
If you can't make any of those, the city has an online survey asking which parks you use, what works, and what you'd add. If walking or biking in with a sifter to reach Caspersen, or a dog beach that keeps closing, is part of your week, that survey is the place to say so.
Wondering what a wider, newly renourished beach means for a home near Venice Beach or South Brohard? Call The Real Estate Captains for a free market valuation, and we'll show you what's selling near the sand right now.
