The beaches in the surroundings of Cadzand (Netherlands) and Knokke (Belgium) have been famous for tourism and fossils for a long time. Many people enjoy the hunt for the fossilized remains of shells, manimals, fish, reptiles, sharks and rays and lots more. A layer in front of the coast provides fresh material every day. However, fossils that originate from this layer only wash on shore in small amounts.

Another source provided loads of teeth that can be found on these beaches. During the eighties, fossilcontaining sand from elsewhere was used to surplate the beach. This sand was very rich in teeth and contained the so called Post Miocene Base Layer (dutch: Post Miocene Basisgrind). Mixture of this sand and the original fossil layer in front of the coast means that different geological periods (eocene, oligocene, miocene and pliocene - recent) can be found on the same spot here (timechart). Of course this sometimes troubles determination. However the richness of sharkteeth has increased a lot. Especialy after heavy storms you can find some nice teeth. A lot of Isurus hastalis, unfortunaly most of them broken. If your lucky: Carcharodon carcharias (very rare) or Carcharocles megalodon (pieces are common; complete teeth are rare). Big collections with a wide variety of beautiful teeth, including big megalodons are almost always from collectors that collected during or just after the surplations. I know of collectors that hunted the beaches in those days at dawn, after nights of heavy storms. I myself started collecting too late for the real good catches. Teeth from the surplations still wash on shore, but the concentration is decreasing.

A nice book about the fossils of Cadzand is available. It's not expensive and gives a good overview of the species which can be found here. It's a publication of the NGV (Nederlandse Geologen Vereniging). You can order it or just buy it in Cadzand at the "Bezoekerscentrum".
If you are in Cadzand, be sure to visit "Bezoekerscentrum 't Zwin", besides education on the local plants and animals a beautiful collection of shark teeth is permanently shown.
Table 1. Is a listing of shark species that to my knowledge can be found at the beaches of Cadzand and surroundings. The list is a mixture of my own findings and information I have from references as mentioned at the bottom of this page.

tabel 1. Species list Cadzand