2-324-263 - Curt Teich Postcard Archives/Heritage Images

Scene at the sponge exchange, Tarpon Springs, Florida, USA, 1940. View showing men posing behind large pile of sponges laid out on the docks. The masts of boats are visible in the background. Tarpon Springs was the centre of a thriving sponge harvesting industry from the late 19th century. According to the postcard, the sponge exchange at tarpon Springs was the largest in the world at the time. 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.