Florida: Shark Tooth Rescue
Shark Tooth Rescue!
September 14th – 21st, 2026
Sigh…here we go again, another adventure down to Florida. The main point of this trip, I suppose, was to go to the 25th anniversary party for Seminole Scuba. As an added bonus, after many years of talking about it and saying we’d do it eventually, we finally found time to go megalodon shark tooth diving. It went about as expected.
Top2Bottom Charters
24’ for 90 minutes, 28’ for 91 minutes, and 30’ for 76 minutes
86° F
https://top2bottomcharters.com
Top2Bottom Charters is a small charter that leaves out of Venice, Florida, run by Captain Dustin and crew member Christine. It is a smaller boat but can comfortably hold six passengers and gear. The biggest point of note is that there is not much coverage from the sun so make sure to bring a hat or other sun protection.
Before the dive, Christine gave a briefing on the dives, the best ways to hunt for fossils and showed examples of the different types of teeth you could find. The main goal is to find large megalodon teeth, but there are several other species of shark teeth that you could uncover.
The dives are very shallow and were basically carried out as solo dives spent wafting through the sand hunting for teeth, dugong fossils, stingray teeth, and other fossils or neat things found in the sand. Visibility started baseline Gulf of Mexico visibility around 15-20’ (ish), however, it quickly diminished as you dug and blew around through the sand.
We were told to be back on the boat after no longer than 90 minutes or at least 500 PSI, plenty of time to hunt so long as your attention span lasts that long.
Between the three of us we got one medium sized intact meg tooth, one six-inch half of a tooth, and a bunch of smaller other shark teeth and various other fossils. The dives and boat were a fun change of pace from a “regular” dive but I’m not sure it needs to be a three-tank dive but, that could just be the lack of nudibranchs. It was fun and would do again, in a year or so.
De Leon Springs
24’ for 22 minutes, 73° F
https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/de-leon-springs-state-park
Located in the middle of De Leon Springs State Park the spring is classified as a second magnitude spring. The classification comes from the flow rate of the spring, where a first magnitude spring must discharge at least 100 cubic feet per second or 64.6 million gallons a day. De Leon produces roughly 17-20 million gallons a day with a rate of 26.7 cubic feet per second, at a balmy temperature of roughly 72° F all year round. From the main boil the spring flows down into Spring Garden Lake and then connects into the St. Johns River system. Downstream of the boil alligators, several species of birds and manatees are often seen coasting and sun bathing near the waters along with a variety of plant life and fish.
The springs were originally called Spring Garden, prior to the name change. Due to a desire to increase tourism, the name was changed in the late 19th centery to piggy back on Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon and his quest for the Fountain of Youth. It is doubtful that he ever actually visited the springs, however the rebranding did increase tourism and it was a popular winter resort after the railroads made traveling easier. Later the name was further shortened to just De Leon Springs.
The area was originally used as sugar cane processing, and the old sugar mill is still on site and is now a restaurant where you can cook your own tableside pancakes. The diving area of the springs is minimal and bare. It’s shaped like a funnel with the boil at the center in roughly 25’ of water. Along the slope and the shallows (roughly 8’) you can occasionally see turtles but there is not much other aquatic life. Diving here is only allowed while taking or teaching a course so visiting for “fun” dives is not allowed. The site is very small and is easily explored in a short dive.
Overall, it was another successful trip to Florida: we found some teeth, got in a few unusual dives, and even had time to experiment with a potential new strobe setup. Shark tooth diving was a fun change of pace from our usual diving, and while these three dives were probably enough for now, I’d happily do it again down the road. (Kody: And! Ashton finally got to help me out with a class, for once. He hid some bodies and died a few times.)
