Calvert Cliffs trip - Salvaged a tough day

[dsaavedra]

I arrived at the boat ramp early yesterday morning to find half the parking lot underwater from an abnormally high tide, plus heavy rains 2 days prior. I thought this might make collecting tough but I launched my kayak anyway and headed for the cliffs. I figured there would not be as much beach to collect on but I was not expecting water 2ft deep right up to the cliffs!

 

 

Whenever I'd find a little spit of sand that I could actually walk on I would pull up my kayak and do some searching. I found a few small teeth this way. Later in the day as the tide started receding and I worked my way further down the cliffs I found a substantial beach that I could actually do some collecting on. I found lots of the usual teeth - tons of carcharinus, a lot of tigers/contortus, and some others. I peeked under a log and found the very rim of a cetacean vertebra buried in the sand, I uncovered it and it turned out to be a hefty specimen, about 4" wide by 2" thick.

 

 

A little while later I found what was, at the time, the trip maker. It was the tiniest little megalodon tooth I've seen, about the size of a fingernail. Tiny but still, a meg is meg!

 

 

Toward the end of the day I was working my way back to the kayak when I found a new trip maker. This little cow shark (upper?) tooth was the first complete one I have found and I was happy with it. 

 

 

I didn't want it to end up broken from jostling around with the other teeth in my pocket, so I quickly walked back to the kayak to put it away for safe keeping. As I was quickly walking back from the kayak to return to the spot I found it, I found another cow shark tooth freshly deposited in the surf by a wave. This one was much larger and also in perfect shape and I was so excited to find it. This one is definitely the best find of the day

 

 

What started out looking like an impossible day turned out to be pretty good. I found 170+ teeth, some with very cool colors (like that cream colored tiger), and a few very nice teeth that I'm happy to add to my collection. Here are a few closeups of some of the nicer teeth, and the whole lot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 18, 2022 by dsaavedra

[Fin Lover]

Meg and cow sharks...looks like a great day!  

[Bjohn170]

Wow nice cows, I always double check tides when I hunt Calvert to try to avoid high tides like that but you made do!

[dsaavedra]

8 minutes ago, Bjohn170 said:

Wow nice cows, I always double check tides when I hunt Calvert to try to avoid high tides like that but you made do!

 

Thanks! I planned to be out all day and knew the tide would be receding after ~10am till dark so I wasn't too concerned. This was my first time at this particular location though and I didn't realize how high up the water could get. I think I'll save this spot for days when we have blowout tides.  I looked at your post history and see that you also collect along the cliffs from a kayak - do you live nearby? If you ever want company send me a message! I'm still relatively new to it, only been out maybe 7 or 8  times. I plan to go a few more times around the holidays.

[Bjohn170]

1 hour ago, dsaavedra said:

 

Thanks! I planned to be out all day and knew the tide would be receding after ~10am till dark so I wasn't too concerned. This was my first time at this particular location though and I didn't realize how high up the water could get. I think I'll save this spot for days when we have blowout tides.  I looked at your post history and see that you also collect along the cliffs from a kayak - do you live nearby? If you ever want company send me a message! I'm still relatively new to it, only been out maybe 7 or 8  times. I plan to go a few more times around the holidays.

I live about an hour and a half away but I get out as often as work and weather will let me. I’ll let you know one of the next times I’m going out!

[Tidgy's Dad]

Very nice report and some great finds.

Thanks for sharing. 

[sixgill pete]

Great finds. The upper cow shark is very nice.