Venice Beach

We did this dive looking for shark's teeth on 11/11/04. We dove straight off the public beach. Parking was great early in the day, but got crowded by 10am or so. There are benches right on the beach, which make it great to gear up. The Gulf was mirror flat and there was absolutely no current. The bottom was way, way too silty. Visibility was about 5 at the best of times and a solid 0 at others. Usually, it was in the area of 1-2 feet. My girlfriend and I held hands most of the dive, to avoid becoming separated, and even then, we got lost once. Stirring the bottom was a disaster... The bottom was so bad, that we didn't find ANY teeth while diving. However, the trip was not lost, we found about 20 teeth in the surf line, during our surface interval. Most between 1/2 and 1 inch. If your looking for Sand Dollars, it's great! We gathered about 40 of them, and saw at least that many more. At one point, right at 10 feet, the entire bottom was covered with them as far as we could see, but they were all alive, so we didn't grab them... There must have been 50 of them all within a 10 foot circle!! Some fish, including a Leopard Searobin. Minimal plants. Would be really nice on a high viz day. But the local dive shop says that late in the year like this, the bottom is always like this. He says check it out in the spring and early summer, and I'd have a much different opinion. The teeth we did find were very cool though, and made the trip from Cocoa Beach worth it.