2-324-262 - Curt Teich Postcard Archives/Heritage Images

Sponges on the dockside, Tarpon Springs, Florida, USA, 1940. Postcard. People walk through and inspect the harvest. Many more sponges can be seen in piles. There are boats moored abong the dock. 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.