Meg Ledge Diving in North Carolina: Our Divers Are Finding Megalodon Shark Teeth
Brent Clevenger Aug 07, 2026
There are scuba dives you remember because of the visibility, the marine life, or the people you were diving with.
And then there are dives where you come back to the boat holding a piece of prehistoric history.
As we publish this on August 7, 2026, Sink or Swim Scuba divers are offshore on our current North Carolina Meg Ledge dive trip—and they are finding teeth.
Lots of teeth.
Judging by the smiles and the handfuls of fossilized shark teeth coming back to the boat, it is already turning into an incredible trip.
Diving for Megalodon Teeth off the North Carolina Coast
North Carolina offers some amazing offshore scuba diving, and fossil hunting on the Meg Ledges is one of the most unusual experiences available to experienced recreational divers.
Millions of years ago, enormous prehistoric sharks—including the legendary Megalodon—swam these waters. Today, fossilized shark teeth and other prehistoric remains can still be discovered along areas of the ocean floor off the North Carolina coast.
Instead of looking at a Megalodon tooth in a museum or display case, qualified scuba divers can descend to the bottom and actually search for these fossils themselves.
You never know exactly what you're going to find.
Some teeth are small. Others are the kind of Megalodon teeth that make you stop what you're doing and immediately start thinking about where you're going to display them when you get home.
If this sounds like your kind of adventure, check out our upcoming Sink or Swim Scuba dive trips and travel opportunities.
Meg Ledge Diving Is Advanced Diving
One important thing to understand about Meg Ledge diving is that this is not an entry-level Open Water dive.
These offshore dives can reach 100 feet and deeper, so advanced certification, appropriate experience and comfort with deeper offshore diving are required for our Meg Ledge trips.
Conditions can vary from one dive to another, including visibility, current, water temperature and sea conditions. Deeper diving also demands greater attention to gas management, dive planning, no-decompression limits and overall situational awareness.
That challenge is part of what makes finding a Megalodon tooth so rewarding.
You don't order a tooth.
You don't know where the next one is.
You go diving and hunt for it.
And when one finally appears on the bottom, you're holding a piece of prehistoric history that has been waiting there for millions of years.
Want to Work Your Way Up to Dives Like This?
If you're already scuba certified but aren't ready for a 100+ foot offshore dive yet, that doesn't mean the Meg Ledges aren't in your future.
Diving is a progression.
At Sink or Swim Scuba, we encourage divers to continue training while also getting actual time underwater and building experience.
A great goal for a newer diver is earning the SDI Advanced Diver certification.
To earn SDI Advanced Diver, a diver completes four specialty certifications and logs at least 25 dives.
For divers interested in progressing toward deeper offshore adventures like the Meg Ledges, we normally recommend these four specialties:
- Nitrox Diver
- Deep Diver
- Night & Limited Visibility Diver
- Underwater Navigation Diver
Each one adds something useful to a diver's overall skill set.
Nitrox Diver helps divers understand enriched air and its advantages and limitations—knowledge that is particularly useful when doing multiple dives over several days.
Deep Diver directly prepares divers for the additional planning, gas management and considerations involved as they begin diving deeper.
Night & Limited Visibility Diver helps build confidence and teaches divers to operate when visual references are reduced and greater reliance is placed on instruments, lights, procedures and buddy awareness.
Underwater Navigation Diver develops one of the most important skills an independent diver can have: knowing where you are underwater and being able to navigate effectively.
Complete four specialties, build at least 25 logged dives, and you've done much more than collect another certification card—you've accumulated training and experience that can help prepare you for bigger adventures.
You can explore Sink or Swim Scuba's scuba courses and continuing-education options and talk with our instructors about creating a training path based on the type of diving you eventually want to do.
This Is Why We Take Divers on Trips
At Sink or Swim Scuba, we believe getting scuba certified should be the beginning of diving—not the end of it.
The certification course gives you the foundation. The real reward comes when you start using those skills to see and experience things most people never will.
That might mean spending a weekend diving locally, exploring wrecks, visiting the Florida springs, traveling to the Caribbean, or heading offshore into the Atlantic in search of prehistoric Megalodon teeth.
Our goal isn't simply to certify people.
We want to help create active divers who keep diving, keep learning and keep having adventures.
That is why we organize scuba diving trips and travel opportunities throughout the year for our dive community.
Want to Go Megalodon Tooth Diving With Us?
If you're looking at the teeth from this trip and thinking, “I want to do that,” we'd love to help you work toward it.
You can learn more about our Meg Ledge 3-Tank Friday and Saturday dive trips.
You can also browse all of our upcoming Sink or Swim Scuba dive trips and travel opportunities.
Dates and availability change throughout the year, so if a current Meg Ledge trip is already underway or sold out, keep an eye on our trip schedule and let us know you're interested in going on a future trip.
Not Certified Yet? This Is What Scuba Certification Can Lead To
Maybe you're reading this and thinking that finding your own Megalodon tooth sounds incredible—but you've never been scuba diving before.
That's okay. You don't begin your diving career at 100+ feet on the Meg Ledges.
You start with Open Water.
Our SDI Open Water Scuba Diver certification course is where new divers begin.
Sink or Swim Scuba trains divers from Gastonia, Charlotte, Belmont, Lake Norman, Lake Wylie and communities throughout the region.
Open Water gives you the foundation. From there, you gain dives, continue training, earn specialties and gradually expand the environments and depths you're prepared to explore.
The progression can look something like this:
Open Water Certification → Specialty Training → 25+ Logged Dives → SDI Advanced Diver → Bigger Dive Adventures
Your first dives may be focused on buoyancy, equipment, breathing and becoming comfortable underwater.
Eventually, those same fundamental skills can take you more than 100 feet beneath the Atlantic Ocean looking for a tooth from a shark that lived millions of years ago.
And one day, the diver sitting on the boat holding a giant Megalodon tooth could be you.
Scuba Diving Adventures From Charlotte to the North Carolina Coast
One of the best parts of operating a dive shop is watching someone progress from:
“I've always wanted to learn to scuba dive.”
to:
“When's our next dive?”
People living around Charlotte and Gastonia have access to far more diving than many realize.
North Carolina gives us inland diving, Atlantic wrecks, offshore diving and unique adventures like fossil hunting on the Meg Ledges.
And once you're ready to travel farther, scuba diving opens destinations all over the world.
That's what we want for our students and customers—not simply another certification card, but a lifetime of places to go and things to experience underwater.
Follow Along With Our August 2026 Meg Ledge Trip
And our current trip isn't over yet.
We'll be sharing more pictures, Megalodon teeth and other finds as our divers continue exploring the Meg Ledges.
If you're already a qualified diver and want to join us on a future adventure, visit our Scuba Diving Trips & Travel page.
If you're certified but need more training and experience before tackling dives like this, contact us and we'll help you develop a path toward SDI Advanced Diver and deeper offshore diving.
And if you've never been certified, start with our SDI Open Water Scuba Diver course.
Maybe these Megalodon teeth are the motivation you've been waiting for.
Sink or Swim Scuba Inc.
4310K Wilkinson Blvd.
Gastonia, NC 28056
704-823-0501
Dive@SinkOrSwimScuba.com
www.SinkOrSwimScuba.com
Scuba Training • Dive Travel • Equipment • Service • Recreational & Public Safety Diving
