2-324-258 - Curt Teich Postcard Archives/Heritage Images

Sale in progress at the sponge exchange, Tarpon Springs, Florida, USA, 1940. Postcard. Scene showing men standing around piles of natural sponges displayed for sale. Tarpon Springs was the centre of a thriving sponge harvesting industry from the late 19th century. Many of the divers were Greek immigrants, who introduced the techniques they had used to gather sponges underwater in the Mediterranean. The industry was wiped out in 1947 by a red algae bloom that killed the sponges.