venice shark teeth

Im heading to venice florida in the beginning of june to do a shark tooth dive. im having a hard time figuring out what to do. boat dive at two tanks or shore dive with the possabilaty of more. i called the local dive shop and they said dont even bother to try and shore dive. they told me i wont find anything and i wont find a buddy to dive with? (my dive will have to be on a monday or tuesday).they steerd me rite to a boat dive. i need HELP!!!!!. what is the best way to go about this? i wont be able to make it back down to venice for another year. and i only have one day to dive. all the research i did said u can find just as many teeth from beach diving as u can from the boat? but to find a local to dive with. how much of this is true or just bunk? any help on this would b great.

thanks

Lots of people find nice teeth shore diving. If they told you that you can't then that isn't true. However, if you only have a short time here and you have never been fossil diving in Venice before then in my opinion you should go with a charter. They put you right where you need to be and tell you what to look for. If it matters, I think the bigger teeth are usually found a little further out unless you are someone who dives from the shore all the time and really knows what they are doing. Thats not to say you can't find nice teeth from the shore, people certainly do but I think your chances are better from a boat in my opinion.
You always have the option of doing a morning trip from a boat and then getting your tanks filled and doing a shore dive. If you aren't bringing a buddy it might be a little tough hooking up with one on the boat but it depends on the day. Most people who are regulars dive alone. With the often bad viz and the fact that you are focused on the bottom most of the time you sometimes can spend more time keeping track of your buddy than looking for teeth. I hope that helps a little.

I've never dove in Venice but a buddy of mine did last year and was glad he hooked up with a charter. Until you know the area, it is too hard to find the right spot to shore dive and find the fossils: according to him at least.

He went without a buddy and the dive op dropped people as single divers if that is what they wanted or in buddy pairs. Each single or buddy pair carried a dive flag. The in-water DM would check in with each single diver or buddy pair every 10 -15 minutes, swimming up to them and flashing the OK sign. The dive was quite shallow: less than 20 feet. The viz was less than 2 feet and according to my friend, he thinks it would have been pretty difficult to stay with a buddy so he was just as happy as a single diver.