Venice Beach may be the shark's tooth capital of the world, but there’s a new kid in town—and it's capitalizing on the abundance of Florida's inland fossils.

Relic Reef opened in Myakka City at the beginning of this month, and owner Sam Harkin, 33, says he’s been slammed with customers since day one. It's located within Dakin Natural Soils, a 1,200-acre commercial soil lot that sells fill dirt for construction sites. Dakin Dairy's Jerry Dakin owns the land and leases 10 acres, which have already been dug out, to Harkin and his wife Courtney, who's Dakin's cousin.

“Jerry started digging this land out about seven or eight years ago,” Harkin says. “Last year, my wife and I started going down into the pit to find teeth. I thought, ‘Man, this could be a really great business for other shark tooth hunters to come out.'”

For $100, visitors can book a half-day dig on Booksy on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, starting at 9 a.m. Harkin says the dig technically ends around 1 p.m., but he never makes people leave right on the dot.

“Sometimes we’re here until 2 or 3 p.m.," he says. "I don’t want to rush anybody and don’t wrap up until everybody’s ready to leave. It's kind of like harmless gambling. It's tough to quit, and I don't want to make anyone quit looking."

Shark tooth hunters unanimously agree that finding a megalodon tooth—or a “meg,” as Harkin calls it—is the ultimate goal. At Relic Reef, the megalodon finds have been plentiful.

“Everybody who comes out here wants that megalodon, or at least one type of big tooth,” Harkin says. “It doesn't happen for everyone, but each day we've had people out since opening, there's at least one meg found. There are tons of little teeth out there, too. You have to look really close, and if you've got a hawkeye, you might find a big one.”

Sharks have been around for approximately 450 million years (200 million years before dinosaurs showed up). Tens of millions of years ago, Florida was completely submerged. During the Miocene (23 million years ago) and Pliocene epochs (5 million years ago), massive sharks like the 60-foot megalodon swam the warm waters above what would one day become the Florida peninsula. When the sharks died, they decomposed, but their teeth stayed behind. Over millions of years, they fossilized. Since there’s less erosion in inland Florida, its sedimentary layers are still intact—that’s why megalodon teeth are plentiful at spots like Relic Reef.

Relic Reef provides all the gear you need, so you can leave your tools at home. Harkin has shovels, buckets, sifters and, most importantly, cold water and shade when you need to take a break. Before heading into the valley, he points out the best spots to hunt to each group of people and lets each group go its separate ways. Rain reservoirs dot the landscape, and Harkin uses those pools for his water pump and hose, which wash away layers of dirt and expose new teeth.

He's also happy to help, showing hunters how to spot teeth and his favorite areas to search. Due to different rock compositions, inland teeth glow blue-gray instead of black, like at Venice Beach.

“I want Relic Reef to get people off the phone to go out into nature and get back to the Florida roots," Harkin says. He emphasizes that it’s a primitive experience and people are going to get dirty. (That's an understatement.) 

As 2 p.m. approaches on the date I visited Relic Reef, the sky darkens and thunder threatens in the distance. There are 10 of us digging around in the valley, but I know it's time to scramble back to base. I get there just in time for a five-minute rain rinse. (Although you can usually rinse your teeth at the dig site, storm winds have knocked over Relic Reef’s gazebo tents.) 

When I get home and clean my mesh sack full of shark teeth (and myself—Harkin wasn't kidding about the dirt), I count a total of 80 teeth. After four hours of scrambling, I have sore muscles I didn’t know existed. And while I didn’t find my meg, I finally learned how to properly hunt for shark teeth.

Relic Reef is located inside Dakin Natural Soils at 28500 State Road 70, Myakka City. For more information, visit the Relic Reef Instagram page. Took book your dig, click here.