Basic Dive Info: Venice
Venice is by far the ‘easiest’ of the popular fossil dives – e.g. Venice, The Cooper, The Ledges.
From a technical perspective the shallow depths (averaging 20-30ft depth and ranging anywhere from 12-42ft) and the short distance from shore (ranging from several hundred feet to up to about 2.5 miles) make for a laidback dive.
What can make the dive a bit nerve-racking for newer divers is the visibility (or lack thereof) and the need to navigate (either back to the boat or back to the beach depending on the type of dive you choose).
The visibility can range drastically day to day and even spot to spot. Though there are some days where you’re lucky enough to get top to bottom vis, the average throughout the year is probably only about 5-8ft. We typically say even 2-3ft of hazy vis is diveable for this area.
Conditions can also vary greatly depending on time of year. In winter a lot of dive days tend to get canceled due to bad weather, though if you can brave the cold (And I’m talking cold! It can get down to around 57*F in late January/early February!) and time it right, the winter cold fronts can stir up plenty of fossilized treasures for you to find!
The bottom in Venice tends to be very silty & unfortunately it doesn’t take much to stir up the bottom and ruin the visibility completely.
Keeping the visibility in mind, most fossil divers tend to dive solo. Of course no one is suggesting or recommending that you dive outside your comfort zone or training level, but the theory is the more time spent looking for your buddy, the less time spent looking for teeth. If divers do choose to dive with a buddy, often times they use a 8-10ft ‘buddy line’ to keep them together without having to keep visual contact.
The biggest benefit of the shallow depth in Venice is the bottom time it allows. Some divers can even get upwards of 2-3 hours off a single tank!
Overall, Venice is a great place to start fossil diving even for newly certified divers!
Happy diving!