“A lot of this has to do with the (scallop) prices last year. Put them back down to $3.65 (per pound) again and I don't think you'll see this problem any more.” ~ Sam Martin
It was dark, but at least it wasn’t cold this time. And again my dive buddy makes me drive myself to the boat. Uhh…thanks. Using my Garmin, I managed to find the boat, despite the dive shops ominous warning to call them if I ended up at a laundry mat, they swear GPS never finds them.
I was going shark tooth hunting. Last year I did these dives from the beach, but had heard that the big teeth were found in the offshore beds reached only by boat. I was going to find out. The boat was a 31 footer named the Hammerhead out of Venice Beach, Florida. The captain and mate were most helpful and attentive and the boat quite comfortable. There were 12 divers aboard with at least five having done this dive twenty or more times. Some of these people are serious about their teeth.
The day was a bit overcast but 67F as we headed out into the Gulf. Two kayakers rode our wake out to the dive site, about a 20 min ride. We stood on deck and watched them fly along the edges of the boats wake, keeping up with us and only using their paddles for balance and direction. Looked like great fun, but I am sure they had one heck of a long paddle back.
Once out a the site we geared up and stepped off the back of the dive platform into 27 feet of 70F water. Apparently tooth hunting is a solo activity and each diver was handed a flag as they stepped off the platform. A diver from Illinois I had been speaking to on the ride out was a little uncomfortable diving solo and asked if he could tag along with me and I welcomed the company.
Due to some heavy rains yesterday there was only about 20 foot of visibility but we only needed to see about a foot as we began scouring the bottom for teeth. As I looked about I saw rocks and seashells, and coral and sponges, some hermit crabs and colorful sea urchins, but no shark teeth.
Then I began to pick out pieces of sting ray barbs and manta ray dental plate, and my lessons from last year began to come back to me. Some of the rocks began to take shape as petrified manatee ribs and whale bones and I carefully selected a few just to confirm when I got topside.
There were dozens of small scallops scattered about and they hopped away as we skimmed over them. To my amusement, a set of three in a row jumped up in unison under my chin and hopped away like a scene from a Disney movie. I listened a moment, half expecting to hear them singing as they skipped along.
Then I saw one, small…. but the triangular shape was unmistakable, and then another, and then a thin tiger shark one. Shark teeth. It was coming back to me now. I didn’t find many, but I did manage to snag my first meg! Not a 6 inch trophy quality one but a respectable little bugger none the less. Woo Hoo.
As we swam along the pin fish, between 6 and 10 inches long, were abundant and curious. They constantly came up to my mask planting little fish kisses on the lens and straps and hovering directly underneath me as I swam. If I stopped several would come running to take a look and see what all the fuss was about, following my arm as it moved about. I gave a quick shot at snagging one in my little goody bag but they would have none of it. I did poke dozens of them and they immediately came right back, not to be chased away so easily. It was fish pokey heaven.
My fish poking AAD was in full swing when I noted 2 things. One…. my dive flag was no where to be found…..and Two …. I was about an hour into the dive and might just want to surface and see where the boat was. So up we went, surfacing about 20 yards from the boat. My dive flag……oh about a quarter mile away, I am sure. I could barely make it out in the distance. Hmmm, I wonder how that happened.
We collected all the divers and the errant dive flag and spent the surface interval sorting through our finds. The Captain is a wealth of knowledge in this area and explained about upper and lower teeth, why some teeth are brown and some black, prehistoric horses and their teeth, prehistoric scallop casts, and more.
I dropped back in for dive two and immediately found a large piece of broken meg tooth. Unfortunately this was all I would come across this dive and soon became bored with searching for teeth and started searching out the locals.
I came across a large cleaner shrimp hard at work on a large shell and dozens of mini hermit crabs. The pin fish kept me constant company running into and around me. There were pink, red and purple sea urchins everywhere and I occupied myself decorating them by hanging little seashells on their spines. There were several sea robbins swimming about and I pulled on the tail of more than one.
Then I saw him. Just sitting there. I don’t know if he was yawning, or taking a drink of water or maybe even just stretching, but his shell opened up…..and I poked him. AND THE DAMNED THING BIT ME! I now have this scallop hanging off the end of my finger and he is pissed. I smacked him off my finger and as he hits the sand he jumps back up at me several times snapping his shell. It is absolutely comical, like something out of a cartoon and I find myself laughing and flooding my reg.
“Someone” told me this would happen some day. Can’t believe he missed it. _________________