Insider Info and Directions to Venice beaches

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Sh@rkW@tcher

supreme yak diver in charge
Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
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Location
Punta Gorda,FL
# of dives
I'm a Fish!
Alhambra Beach
Venice, FL

Type of diving Shark tooth and fossil hunting in the Gulf of Mexico. This area is a prehistoric river bed and does yield more fossils than the sharks teeth.

Type of diving: Shore dive

Directions: Google Maps
I-75 exit 200 to Osprey.
Continue Southeast on TAMIAMI TRL N/FL-45 S/US-41 S toward BAYVIEW DR. Continue to follow TAMIAMI TRL N/FL-45 S. 7.4 miles Map
Turn RIGHT onto MIAMI AVE W. <0.1 miles
Turn LEFT onto NOKOMIS AVE S. <0.1 miles
Turn RIGHT onto PONCE DE LEON AVE. 0.3 miles
Turn LEFT onto HARBOR DR S. 0.1 miles
Turn RIGHT onto ALHAMBRA RD. 0.4 miles
Follow ALHAMBRA RD to the end

What to expect at the dive site: Typical sharks teeth found are from the folloing: Dusky and Blacktip family, Sand Shark (current and prehistoric), Bull Shark, and Lemon Shark. More rare but also found are Maco, Great White, Snaggle Tooth and Megalodon. Other fossils that can be found include dolphin, manatee, and whale bones, stingray stingers and crusher platelettes and tail vertebrae, porupine fish platelettes, mammoth and mastodon teeth/tusk/vertebrae, sloth claws, alligator scales, and sabertooth teeth. Best times for hunting are a few days after a storm when the water has settled down. Depths are 16-18 feet, unless you swim a long way out then you may hit 20.

Where to park: parking is on the street: do not park blocking driveways and park the same direction and trafic flow. Many parking tickets have been issued here to non-believers .

Amenities: Florida West dive shop is about 1 mile north of the site on 41 literally just over the bridge back onto the main land. Sharkey's resturant is at the base of the pier. Venice Beach's downtown district is 1/2 mile off with food and shops as well.

Pros and Cons: When the water is clear lots of teeth can be found. When the water is a milky emerald green, there will be no visibility on the bottom and toothing is useless.
 
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Alternate directions to Alhambra:

From the south:

Head to Venice on I 75. Take exit 193 and head SW (coming from the south that's a left turn) on Jacaranda. Turn right on Venice Ave. Stay on Venice Ave until after you've crossed the bridge to the downtown area. Turn left at the second light after the bridge (Harbor - name not well marked). Turn right at the 5th street (Alhambra).

From the north:

Head to Venice on I 75. Take exit 200 (SR681) and follow it to US 41 where you'll turn left (south). Take US 41 to Business US 41 (Tamiami Trail) where you turn right. After you cross the bridge, you'll turn right on Venice Ave. Turn left at the first light (Harbor - name not marked). Turn right at the 5th street (Alhambra).

Park on the street as close to the dead end as possible. Be careful not to block the driveway to the condo. Keep your dive between the culverts to the south and the three pine trees to the north.
 
Venice Boat Ramps


The closest to Venice Beach by way of water would actually be the small boat ramp at north jetty. It's actually considered to be Nokomis, but if you launch there you just have to exit the pass and turn south to get to Venice. Be warned that the ramp is very small and not really paved so it's probably only good for smaller boats.

If you are on the island there is a boat ramp on the way to south jetty, it's at the yacht club and is open to the public. From there it is a fairly short trip around to the pass and out to the gulf.

If you are right off of the island there is a ramp and the linear park which is right off of the east bridge. Off of the the north bridge, there is a ramp beside Florida West scuba. Off of the south bridge there are a few ramps in south Venice, but I would recommend against them because you will have a long trip up the intercoastal.
 
SERVICE CLUB PARK
Using the directions to Alhambra, continue south on South Harbor Dr for about 1 mile. Directly across from the airport is Service Club Park.
Ammenities: Paved parking, showers, restrooms, picnic tables and a boardwalk to the beach, grills

Site directions: Take a heading of 250 degrees from the boardwalk steps and swim out until you're even with the pier (about 100 yards) drop down into 15' of water. Teeth are found in this general area. Swim west about 50 yards and you'll come to a nice coquina reef full of fish. Past the reef is an area of black sand that always holds fossil teeth, including some nice megs. About 200 yards farther out on the same 250 heading is the culvert artifical reef (about 1 acre of 4 ft culverts laying around and stacked). Lot of fish here but this is also a popular fishing spot so there is always a risk of accidental hooking and entanglement.

Cons: small parking area and lack of good beach access for launching kayaks (the boardwalk ends with several steep steps which would be difficult to haul a yak up and down with or w/o carts).
 
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SHARKEYS PARK

Continue 1/2 mile farther south from Service Club Park along South Harbor Dr. and you'll come to Sharkeys pier. Directly north of the pier is Sharkeys park.

Ammenities: large paved parking area, showers, restrooms, good beach access for kayakers.

Site discription: there is a large shallow sandbar about 30 yards from the beach, a heading of about 300 degrees for 150 yards will put you in 15-18' of water in an area of broken shell and black sand. this is where several nice megs have been found. If you continue this heading you'll come to culvert reef (see service club post for discription).

This site is right next to Sharkeys restraurant which is a great post dive/surface interval site for food and refreshment (try the Grouper Wrap).
Special Note: You must stay more than 100 yards from the pier when scuba diving or you'll get a visit from the Sherrif's Dept.
 
SOUTH BROHARD PARK

Continue south from Sharkeys, along South Harbor Dr. past the paw park about 1/2 mile and you will come to South Brohard Park.

Ammenities:Large paved parking area, showers, restrooms, picnic tables and two boardwalks to the beach (the north boardwalk is wheelchair accessible). The best kayak launching is from a small roadside parking area 50 yards south of the park entrance.

Site Discription: Using the boardwalk closest to the park entrance (south boardwalk), take a heading of 250 degrees, cross over the sand bar and about 50 yards farther out are the blocks (an artificial reef of limestone 4x4 blocks). Lots of fish here, and tooth fossils in and around the blocks. After storms some nice teeth have been found in the washouts at the base of the blocks. Depth here is 15'. A heading from the boardwalk of 270 degrees for about 100 yards will take you to a coquina reef. Mammal fossils have been found in this area and some small shark teeth. A heading of 300 degrees for about 250 yards will put you in an area of black sand, broken shell and a variety of fossils (mammoth teeth&bones, horse/llama teeth, alligator and turtle fossils). It is a good idea when fossil diving in this area to have a large collecting bag and lift bag. There have been LARGE fossils found in this area including mammoth tusk and leg bones. NOTE: This is not recommended for beginners. Long swims with collecting bags laden with heavy fossils will burn thru air quickly. Experience with lift bags is also desired.
 
Scuba Quest
2357 S. Tamiami Tr. Venice, FL 34293
located in Holiday Center(directly across from Bill Buck Chevrolet on US 41)
hours of operation are 9-6 monday thru saturday
Phone # 941-497-5985
approximately 4.5 miles from all above listed toothing sites
 
For those who like to google map/mapquest their directions or use TomTom/Garmin or other Vehicle Nav. systems, here are the physical addresses of the Venice Beach dive sites:

Alhambra: 799 Alhambra Rd. Venice, FL
Service Club: 1220 Harbor Dr. South, Venice, FL
Sharkey&#8217;s: 1664 Harbor Dr. South, Venice, FL
S.Brohard: 2782 Harbor Dr. South, Venice, FL
Casperson: 4072 Harbor Dr. South, Venice, FL

and the addresses of the Venice Dive shops:

Florida West Scuba School Incorporated (941) 486-1400 509 Tamiami Trl N, Unit B, Venice, FL
Scuba Quest (941) 497-5985 2357 Tamiami Trl S, #9, Venice, FL

If there are sites or shops that were omitted..my apologies. Please feel free to add them.
 
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