Stormy Shark Tooth Hunt

[bthemoose]

I've had this weekend marked on my calendar for a few weeks to take advantage of favorable projected tides by going shark tooth hunting at Matoaka! The remnants of Hurricane Sally scrambled that forecast, bringing high winds and surf to Maryland, but I decided to head down this morning anyway. 

 

When I arrived, the sky was fairly clear, but there was a strong, steady wind generating a constant stream of waves, and the tide was well above normal, leaving only a narrow strip of beach. The beach opened up a little bit after I walked and waded north but the storm had dumped a layer of fresh sand and there were almost no exposed shell beds.

 

 

I searched for an hour before I found my first fossil of any note (a cetacean epiphysis). Then, shortly after that, I found my first shark tooth. It was worth the wait--a nice Carcharodon hastalis up near the high tide line!

 

 

About a half hour later, I found a pristine Galeocerdo aduncus tooth at the water line. The serrations are still super sharp on this one.

 

 

 

[bthemoose]

Up until that point, the few teeth I'd found were all pretty spread out in distance and time. But as I kept exploring, I finally found a stretch of beach that produced quite a few shark teeth in succession. My best finds there were a large Hemipristis serra tooth, a large Negaprion eurybathrodon tooth, and a small but in excellent condition C. hastalis. The lemon shark was one of my favorites, as it's significantly larger than any of the other lemons I've found to date.

 

 

By the time I turned around, the winds and waves had started to die down, which made for a more pleasant walk, though I didn't find anything else of note on my return.

 

While I was skeptical and uncertain when I arrived, at the end of the day, I had a very successful trip!

 

[bthemoose]

Here are my top shark tooth finds of the day all together from back at my car:

 

[Gizmo]

Very nice. congrats!  

[bthemoose]

16 hours ago, Gizmo said:

Very nice. congrats!  

Thank you!

 

Here as well is the "cookie" (epiphysis) I found yesterday, on the left, my second. My first one from a couple of months ago is on the right.

 

[Bob-ay]

niice finds! making a trip down next month hopefully. any tips or spots you would recommend checking out?

[HemiHunter]

Great finds! You did really well under terrible conditions. (You can even see the big sand bar in your surf picture making all the breakers way off the beach--so there's no turbulence left to turn over the shell line where you are.)  Just goes to show that you can be successful under any conditions if you get to know your collecting site and go about your hunt the right way. Your learning curve at Matoaka really paid off this time! That lemon tooth is HUGE.  Awesome!

[butchndad]

On 9/20/2020 at 1:31 PM, bthemoose said:

Thank you!

 

Here as well is the "cookie" (epiphysis) I found yesterday, on the left, my second. My first one from a couple of months ago is on the right.

 

love the cookies!  may be our next trade

[bthemoose]

Thanks, @Bob-ay, @HemiHunter, and @butchndad, it was a good day!