Florida Fossil & Shark Tooth Hunting: Peace River Level & Beach Tides
Is the Peace River low enough to dig for fossils today, and when is low tide for shark teeth at Venice? The river’s level, the beaches’ tides, and what you may keep without a permit.
In October the Peace River at Arcadia was under 3.5 ft on 47% of days and 1 ft or lower on 0% (2006–2025)Collectors’ marks at Arcadia: fossilguy.com prefers around 1 ft or lower; the Tampa Bay Fossil Club hunts the shallows under 3.5 ft. USGS’s reading today has not loaded; this is the month’s record. Shark teeth need no permit; bones and other vertebrate fossils need the Florida Museum’s $5 Fossil Permit, one for each adult, and it can take up to four weeks to arrive.
Each month at Arcadia: the share of days under 3.5 ft, 2006–2025
- Jan84% · median 2.07 ft
- Feb78% · median 2.13 ft
- Mar91% · median 1.53 ft
- Apr94% · median 1.32 ft
- May93% · median 1.13 ft
- Jun68% · median 2.39 ft
- Jul35% · median 4.09 ft
- Aug27% · median 5.45 ft
- Sep11% · median 7.52 ft
- Oct47% · median 3.82 ft
- Nov80% · median 2.29 ft
- Dec84% · median 1.97 ft
The place and the level
- DeSoto Veterans Memorial Park, Arcadia (SR 70): the end of the Peace River Paddling Trail, at the SR 70 bridge where the Arcadia gauge stands. Mile 70 of the Peace River Paddling Trail.
- “Desoto Veterans Memorial Park entrance is located on the west side of the bridge. From US 17 in Arcadia, head west on SR 70 1.5 miles to bridge.” (Florida DEP)
- “At Arcadia, many collectors prefer the water around 1 foot or lower.” (fossilguy.com)
- “If the water level is lower than 3.5 feet in this graph, you can hunt fossils using the shovel and screen method in the shallows.” (the Tampa Bay Fossil Club)
- USGS: Peace River at SR 70 at Arcadia, the gauge now
What you may keep, and where
- Shark and ray teeth, shells, plants and invertebrate fossils: yours to keep, no permit.
- “Shark and ray teeth, invertebrate, and plant fossils may be collected and kept by anyone with or without a permit.” (the Florida Museum)
- Any other vertebrate fossil (a bone, a mammoth or horse tooth, a turtle shell) on state land — the river beds and public beaches — needs the Florida Museum’s Fossil Permit: $5 a year, one for each adult, reported each year.
- “A permit is required to collect fossils of all other kinds of vertebrates, namely fish (except shark and ray teeth), amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals (non-human).”
- “The permit program is only applicable to vertebrate fossils found on state lands in Florida, including public beaches and stretches of rivers that are not within the boundaries of managed areas (such as State parks or historic sites).”
- “Each adult individual who intends to collect vertebrate fossils legally in Florida will need to hold their own permit.”
- “Up to four weeks, depending on the time of year and available funding for staff hours.” (how long a permit takes)
- “If fossil finds are not claimed by the museum within 60 days of reporting, they become your property to do with as you wish.”
- What you may dig with, and how much.
- “Surface collecting, hand-fanning, and small single-handed tools are permitted. You should not be able to tell that an area has been disturbed after collecting fossils.”
- “The following are not allowed without the permission of the state’s Department of Environmental Protection: any device powered by a motor, mechanical excavating equipment, or dredging equipment.”
- “You can collect up to a gallon of sediment per day to screenwash and pick through for yourself.”
- Where you may not collect at all.
- “No collecting of any type is allowed inside the boundaries of state parks, national wildlife refuges, national parks, or national forests.”
- “In general, collecting is allowed in the beds of navigable rivers, unless special exemption has been made for environmental reasons (e.g., the Myakka River).”
- “Fossil collecting is not permitted on State Lands between Bartow and Wauchula.” (Florida DEP)
- “Fossils found on private property belong to the property owner, and those found on county-owned land are up to the discretion of the county.”
- “Collecting archaeological objects, including human remains and human-modified objects (e.g., arrowheads, pottery, modified vertebrate fossils, etc.), is illegal on State land in Florida.”
- Without a permit, the penalty in s. 1004.576, Florida Statutes: the collector commits a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine not to exceed $500 or by imprisonment in the county jail for a period not to exceed 6 months, or both, and forfeits the fossils.
- Florida Museum: the Fossil Permit (read 2026-10-04)
- Florida Museum: Fossil Permit FAQs
- Section 1004.576, Florida Statutes
- Florida DEP: Peace River Paddling Trail Guide (PDF)
River levels: U.S. Geological Survey, daily means 2006–2025. No wadeable level is published by the Florida Museum or the counties; the marks are two fossil collectors’ (quoted). Rules: the Florida Museum of Natural History’s Fossil Permit pages (read 2026-10-04), ss. 1004.57 and 1004.576 Florida Statutes, Florida DEP’s Peace River Paddling Trail Guide.
Quick answer: Hunt the Peace River when it runs low: under 3.5 ft at the Arcadia gauge (some collectors want 1 ft) or 7 ft or lower at Zolfo Springs; at Arcadia that held on 9 days in 10 from March to May. At Venice, go at a daylight low tide. Shark teeth need no permit; fossil bones need the $5 one.
How to use it
Pick where you will hunt (three Peace River access points, or Caspersen Beach, Brohard or Venice Beach) and the day (today is filled in). On the river, today’s answer is the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) latest reading at the place’s gauge against the levels fossil collectors hunt at; any later day, it is how often that month was low enough over 20 years, with all twelve months as bars below it. At a beach, the answer is that day’s low tide in daylight while the beach is open, and the lowest daylight low of each day in the week from it. Then the place in its own page’s words, and what you may keep, in the Florida Museum of Natural History’s, the statute’s and Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) own words.
How low the Peace River has to be
No official “wadeable” level is published: not by the Florida Museum, which runs the fossil permit, nor by DeSoto or Hardee County. Fossil collectors read two USGS gauges. At Arcadia (Peace River at SR 70), the Tampa Bay Fossil Club says “If the water level is lower than 3.5 feet in this graph, you can hunt fossils using the shovel and screen method in the shallows”, and fossilguy.com that “many collectors prefer the water around 1 foot or lower”. At Zolfo Springs (Peace River at US 17), both give 7 feet: “if it is 7 feet or lower there will be good fossil hunting in the shallows” (the club). The table counts every day of USGS’s daily means from 2006 to 2025 against those marks: March to May is the river’s lowest stretch; it rises from July, and September is its highest month.
| Month | Arcadia under 3.5 ft | Arcadia 1 ft or lower | Arcadia median | Zolfo Springs 7 ft or lower | Zolfo Springs median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 84% | 0% | 2.07 ft | 82% | 5.37 ft |
| February | 78% | 0% | 2.13 ft | 80% | 5.34 ft |
| March | 91% | 11% | 1.53 ft | 91% | 4.59 ft |
| April | 94% | 28% | 1.32 ft | 94% | 4.44 ft |
| May | 93% | 36% | 1.13 ft | 95% | 4.16 ft |
| June | 68% | 9% | 2.39 ft | 73% | 5.43 ft |
| July | 35% | 0% | 4.09 ft | 45% | 7.28 ft |
| August | 27% | 0% | 5.45 ft | 38% | 8.34 ft |
| September | 11% | 0% | 7.52 ft | 16% | 10.46 ft |
| October | 47% | 0% | 3.82 ft | 50% | 7.02 ft |
| November | 80% | 3% | 2.29 ft | 80% | 5.41 ft |
| December | 84% | 5% | 1.97 ft | 83% | 5.28 ft |
Where to go in on the river
Florida DEP’s Peace River Paddling Trail Guide lists the public access points. Pioneer Park in Zolfo Springs, a Hardee County park at the US 17 bridge, sits at the Zolfo Springs gauge. Brownville Park, a DeSoto County park about 6 miles north of Arcadia (“A small access fee is charged”), is where the Tampa Bay Fossil Club tells newcomers to “Park at the boat ramp and walk upstream to the island and hunt the shallows”; it reads the Arcadia gauge. DeSoto Veterans Memorial Park, at the end of the paddling trail, is beside the SR 70 bridge where the Arcadia gauge stands. Upstream, DEP warns: “Fossil collecting is not permitted on State Lands between Bartow and Wauchula.”
Venice’s beaches and the tide
The Florida Museum’s advice is to search where water does the digging: “The low tide line at beaches, and the edges and bottoms of creeks and rivers, are the best environment for eroding sediment.” Caspersen Beach, Sarasota County’s park at 4100 Harbor Drive S., has had no car access since “The Harbor Drive access to Caspersen Beach Park washed out during the 2024 storm season”: walk or cycle in from South Brohard Park or the Venetian Waterway Park Trail, between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. Brohard Paw Park is “Open daily, 7 a.m. -dusk.” and has the only beach in Sarasota County where dogs are allowed. Venice Beach on The Esplanade has free parking and county lifeguards. The tides here are NOAA’s predictions at Venice; some days bring only one low, and a few none at all.
More shark tooth beaches: Englewood, Ponte Vedra and St. Augustine
Blogs list a dozen Florida “shark tooth beaches”; this tool adds only the ones a visitors bureau names on its own page. Charlotte County’s, Visit Punta Gorda/Englewood Beach, writes of “hunting for fossilized shark teeth at Englewood Beach or on Don Pedro Island”, and that “early morning low tides expose the absolute best shell beds along the shoreline”. Don Pedro Island is a state park, reached only by boat, where the Florida Museum allows no collecting of any kind, so it is not offered as a place to hunt. St. Johns County’s, Florida’s Historic Coast, lists Ponte Vedra Beach, Mickler’s Landing, Vilano Beach and St. Augustine Beach as its “Best Beaches for Shark Tooth Hunting”, and says “the ideal time to go shark teeth searching is after a storm”. Mickler’s Landing, a county park, is open “Dawn to dusk”. Sarasota County’s pages for Manasota Key and Nokomis print hours, not teeth, so they are not here yet.
| Beach | County | Tides from NOAA’s station at | Station distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Englewood Beach | Charlotte | Venice Municipal Airport | 19 km (12 miles) |
| Ponte Vedra Beach | St. Johns | Jacksonville Beach | 6 km (4 miles) |
| Mickler’s Landing | St. Johns | Jacksonville Beach | 14 km (9 miles) |
| Vilano Beach | St. Johns | St. Augustine Beach | 7 km (5 miles) |
| St. Augustine Beach | St. Johns | St. Augustine Beach | 1 km (1 mile) |
What you may keep
“Shark and ray teeth, invertebrate, and plant fossils may be collected and kept by anyone with or without a permit.” Every other vertebrate fossil — a bone, a horse or mammoth tooth, a piece of turtle shell — found on state land needs the Florida Museum’s Fossil Permit, and state land includes “public beaches and stretches of rivers that are not within the boundaries of managed areas”. The permit costs $5 a year, each adult needs their own, it can take “Up to four weeks” to arrive, and you report your finds; “If fossil finds are not claimed by the museum within 60 days of reporting, they become your property”. Use your hands, a screen and “small single-handed tools”; you may take “up to a gallon of sediment per day” to sift. “No collecting of any type is allowed inside the boundaries of state parks, national wildlife refuges, national parks, or national forests”, and arrowheads, pottery and other human-made objects are never yours to take. Collecting without a permit is a misdemeanor under s. 1004.576, Florida Statutes, with a fine up to $500.
Worked examples
Arcadia on the morning of October 4, 2026. The gauge read 2.27 ft at 6:30 AM: low enough for the shallows, under the Tampa Bay Fossil Club’s 3.5 ft, though above the 1 ft fossilguy.com prefers.
Arcadia on March 14, 2027. Too far ahead for a reading: in March the river at Arcadia was under 3.5 ft on 91% of days and 1 ft or lower on 11%.
Zolfo Springs on September 10, 2027. The worst month to plan for: 7 ft or lower on only 16% of September days.
Caspersen Beach on December 26, 2026. Low tide −0.66 ft at 7:31 AM, in daylight and inside the park’s hours: the lowest of the week from December 20.
Brohard on March 14, 2027. No low tide at all that day at Venice; the lowest daylight low that week is Saturday, March 20, at 4:47 PM.
Mickler’s Landing on January 15, 2027. No low tide in daylight: 7:06 AM (0.44 ft) and 7:13 PM (−0.11 ft) fall before sunrise and after sunset. The week’s lowest daylight low is Thu, Jan 21 at 1:08 PM, −0.72 ft.
Ponte Vedra Beach on October 10, 2026. The low is 0.21 ft at 2:46 PM, in daylight; the tide is Jacksonville Beach’s, NOAA’s nearest station.
Common mistakes
- Going to the river in late summer. September’s median at Arcadia is over 7 feet; the shallows are under water.
- Keeping a mammoth tooth or a bone without a permit. Only shark and ray teeth, shells and plant fossils are free to keep.
- Applying for the permit the week of the trip. It can take up to four weeks.
- Sharing one permit. Each adult needs their own; a child may hunt under an adult’s.
- Digging in a state park. No collecting of any kind is allowed there.
- Driving to Caspersen’s old parking lot. Since the 2024 washout you walk or cycle in from South Brohard Park.
Plan the rest of the trip
Read our guides to what is under the sand in Florida, why some Florida sand is black, the Florida beaches with the most sea glass, Florida’s east and west coasts, restaurants in Venice, Florida and things to do in Sarasota. For shells instead of teeth, the Florida Shelling Planner finds the low tides at nine shelling beaches; Florida Tide Times has every tide, Florida Beach Conditions the water and the flags today, and Sea Turtle Season when turtles nest on Venice’s beaches.
FAQ
Where can you go fossil hunting on the Peace River?
From the public access points between Zolfo Springs and Arcadia: Pioneer Park in Zolfo Springs, Brownville Park north of Arcadia and DeSoto Veterans Memorial Park at the SR 70 bridge are three. Florida DEP’s guide says collecting is not permitted on state lands between Bartow and Wauchula.
What does the Peace River water level need to be for fossil hunting?
Collectors read the USGS gauges: under 3.5 ft at Arcadia for the Tampa Bay Fossil Club (fossilguy.com prefers around 1 ft), and 7 ft or lower at Zolfo Springs for both. No official wadeable level is published.
Do you need a permit to hunt fossils in Florida?
Not for shark and ray teeth, shells or plant fossils. For any other vertebrate fossil on state land, including river beds and public beaches, you need the Florida Museum of Natural History’s Fossil Permit: $5 a year, one for each adult.
Where is the best shark tooth hunting in Venice, Florida?
Caspersen Beach, Brohard and Venice Beach, along Harbor Drive and The Esplanade, at a daylight low tide. Caspersen has had no car access since the 2024 washout: walk or cycle in from South Brohard Park.
When is the best time for fossil hunting in Florida?
On the Peace River, the dry season: from March to May the Arcadia gauge was under 3.5 ft on more than 9 days in 10 (2006–2025). At the beaches, any month, at low tide in daylight.
Can you find megalodon teeth in Florida?
Yes, in the Peace River and on Venice’s beaches, but the Florida Museum is plain: “Finding a perfect giant megalodon tooth is a very rare event.” Like every shark tooth, a megalodon’s is yours to keep without a permit.
What are the best shark tooth beaches in Florida?
Venice’s Caspersen Beach, Brohard and Venice Beach, Englewood Beach on Manasota Key, and in St. Johns County Ponte Vedra Beach, Mickler’s Landing, Vilano Beach and St. Augustine Beach: each one named for shark teeth by its county’s parks or visitors bureau. Go at a daylight low tide, or after a storm.
Where can you go shark tooth hunting in Florida?
The Florida Museum says “The best place to look is in creek beds or on beaches”, on land you are allowed to be on. Venice’s beaches and the Peace River are the best known, then Englewood Beach and the beaches from Ponte Vedra to St. Augustine; never inside a state park, where no collecting is allowed.