Shark Tooth Island (Wilmington, NC): Low Tide Times and How to Get There

Quick answer: Shark Tooth Island is a small dredge island in the Cape Fear River below Wilmington, North Carolina, reached by kayak or a small boat from River Road Park (6500 River Road, open 8:00 AM to sunset). Go at low tide: it comes between NOAA’s low at Orton Point and Wilmington’s, 58 minutes later. Pick your day for the times.

How to use it

Pick the day you plan to go; today is filled in. The answer gives that day’s low tide at the island as a window, from NOAA’s predicted low at Orton Point, downriver, to the one at Wilmington, upriver, with its height, and says whether it falls while River Road Park is open (8:00 AM to sunset, with that day’s sunset worked out for the park). Below it: the week ahead, each day’s lowest tide while the park is open (tap a day to open it), then how people get there, in the county’s, ABC11’s and Coastal Review’s own words.

Where it is, and how people get there

ABC11 reported in 2018 that “The island formed when the Cape Fear River was dredged, and is accessible by kayak off of River Road Park in Wilmington.” Coastal Review, the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s news service, wrote that “Paddlers may have a chance to walk around Kegg Island, Campbell Island and Shark’s Tooth Island for a chance to find natural artifacts, such as fossils or shark teeth.” New Hanover County’s page lists River Road Park at 6500 River Road, Wilmington, NC 28412, with “Hours: 8:00am – Sunset”, a fishing pier and a “Boat Launch For jon boats and kayaks”. There is no bridge or ferry in any of these sources: you paddle or boat across.

The tide at the island

NOAA has no tide station at the island. It predicts Orton Point, 4 miles downriver, as a subordinate of its Wilmington station, 8 miles upriver, and every low at Orton Point in this tool comes 58 minutes before Wilmington’s, at the same height: the tide moves up the river, so the island’s low falls in between. The predicted lows run from 1.2 ft below the chart’s zero (mean lower low water) to 1.3 ft above it. Two lows a day come about 12 hours 25 minutes apart, so the daytime one moves later each day and some days have none while the park is open.

From April to August nearly every day has a low tide while the park is open; from November to January it is 21 to 23 days a month, because the days are short and the park opens at 8:00. A low counts when the middle of its window falls between 8:00 AM and sunset. The heights are NOAA’s predictions, not the river on the day: wind and rain move it.

Worked examples

Monday, October 5, 2026. Low tide between 10:59 AM at Orton Point and 11:57 AM at Wilmington, 0.4 ft, while the park is open.

Saturday, October 17, 2026. No low while the park is open: one comes between 7:25 and 8:23 AM, mostly before it opens, the other after sunset. The next is Sunday, October 18, between 8:15 and 9:13 AM.

Sunday, January 24, 2027. The lowest in this tool’s year: −1.0 ft, between 4:38 and 5:36 PM, with sunset at 5:33 PM.

Sunday, July 4, 2027. −0.5 ft, between 3:54 and 4:52 PM, with sunset at 8:27 PM.

Common mistakes

• Going at high tide. ABC11’s guide, Joseph Harty, put it plainly: the best time is “during low tide or after a big storm”.
• Reading Wilmington’s time alone. Downriver at the island the low comes earlier, up to 58 minutes before Wilmington’s.
• Planning a late low in winter. The park closes at sunset, about 5:00 PM in December.
• Looking for a bridge or a ferry. The island is reached by kayak or boat, from River Road Park’s launch for jon boats and kayaks.
• Taking a prediction as a promise. Wind and rain move the river; NOAA’s times are predictions.

Plan the rest of the trip

Read Wrightsville Beach or Carolina Beach, what to avoid in Myrtle Beach, paddleboarding destinations and where to find sea glass in Florida. For the sea at Wrightsville Beach month by month, see Water Temperature by Month; for shark teeth in Florida, Florida Fossil Hunting; for the light on the water, the Golden Hour Calculator.