Page 178 - South Mississippi Living - September, 2017
P. 178
SPORTS & OUTDOORS jaws
THE BONEYARD
for prehistoric relics
story by Frank Wilem photos by Amanda Pittman
In thirty feet of water off the coast of Venice, Florida, lies the boneyard. There, lucky divers from all over the world have the chance to find fossilized megalodon teeth untouched for more than 10 million years.
ow, you may be wondering just what a megalodon is. Let me explain. Most of us worry about encountering sharks when we venture into the ocean. Thanks to the movie, “Jaws,” our biggest fear is the massive great white shark reaching twenty feet in length
and weighing up to four tons. Yet the prehistoric megalodon literally ate whales and makes the great white look like a toy poodle in comparison.
To support its sixty-foot length and eighty-ton weight, this beast consumed up to a ton of whales, manatees, and sea lions each day. If they still lived in the ocean today, I doubt there’d be many people swimming in our oceans. Luckily, they’re extinct, though their fossilized teeth still remain scattered about the boneyard.
“Generally, our divers bring back at least one meg tooth on every trip,” said Stephanie Schultz of the Venice Dive Center. But why are so many there?
While we can’t know for sure, one viable theory is that a prehistoric river emptied into the ocean near Venice. This created feeding grounds for the huge megalodon sharks which created the huge collection of teeth and bones we find today.
While the shallow waters of the boneyard make it possible to dive from shore, we chose to avoid the mile-long swim and opted to go with a charter boat that took us straight to the spot. As we headed out at 7 a.m., I was excited about the chance to check diving for megalodon teeth off my bucket list.
Once aboard the dive boat, our fossil guide, Ben Schultz, gave us the customary dive master briefing. “The boneyard
178 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • September 2017
FOR MORE REFLECTIONS OF THE GULF COAST >> www.smliving.net
MEGALODON tooth