The Spoil Islands of the Indian River Lagoon

What a Spoil Island Is

Nobody planned these islands. When the Intracoastal Waterway channel was dredged down the middle of the Indian River Lagoon, the sand and shell that came off the bottom had to go somewhere, so it was piled up beside the channel. Those piles became islands. Decades later they are wooded, ringed with sand, and some of the best places on the whole lagoon to spend a day. There are well over a hundred of them between Melbourne and Vero Beach, and the state keeps a register of every one.

The dredging is also why the shark teeth are there. The lagoon floor holds layers of fossil shell and bone, and the dredge brought them up and spread them along the shorelines. Every tide washes a few more out of the sand. That is why a child wading beside a spoil island can find fossil shark teeth in an hour that a collector on the ocean beach would hunt all week for.

Why Kids Love Them

Three reasons, in the order my own kids would give them. The water is shallow, so they can stand up in it and nobody is nervous. There is treasure in it, and shark teeth count as treasure in a way shells never quite do. And the islands feel like theirs — no road, no lifeguard chair, no other family twenty feet away. Most of the children I take out there have never been on an island you can only reach by boat, and they remember it long after the fishing.

As far as I know, no other charter on this stretch of coast runs island trips built around shark-tooth hunting. We have been doing it for years because it is the trip families ask to repeat.

What You Will See

Dolphins on the run across, almost always. Manatees in the cooler months, and sea turtles and rays in the warm ones. Pelicans, ospreys, herons and spoonbills use the islands to roost and nest. Some islands are set aside for the birds and we do not land on those — the state marks them, and the rookeries are easy to spot in spring anyway. Pelican Island, just south of the inlet, was the first national wildlife refuge in the country, and its islands are closed to landing year round. We give it a wide berth and you still see plenty from the boat.

Getting There

There is no bridge, no ferry and no rental counter. You need a boat that draws very little water and someone who knows which side of which island drops off and which one you will run aground on. We leave from Sebastian Inlet, and the first islands are a few minutes from the ramp. On an Island Hopping trip we stop at three or so, depending on tide and where the teeth have been showing: wade off the boat, hunt, swim, move on. Half day is four hours; full day is eight, with more islands and lunch on the sand.

A few islands have picnic tables and allow primitive camping, and the state publishes a map of which is which. For a first visit, though, the islands worth seeing are the ones with the best shell beaches, and those move with the storms. That is the part a local boat is for.

Rules Worth Knowing

• Leave the wildlife alone. Manatees and dolphins are protected; you watch, you do not touch or feed.
• Stay off marked bird islands, especially in nesting season.
• Take your trash back. There are no bins out there.
• Shark teeth and shells are fine to keep. Live shells are not.

Plan the Day

• Shark Teeth Hunting by Boat — how the hunt itself works and what to bring.
• Island Hopping — Half Day $600 or Full Day $975, private, up to six.
• Sandbar Charter — one sandbar, more swimming, Half Day $600.
• Coastal Wildlife Tour — the islands from the water, for the dolphins and manatees rather than the digging.