The little village of Tarpon Springs, Florida, became famous as a center of the commercial sponge-fishing industry in the 30's and 40's. Today, it is a quaint little tourist town.
Tarpon Springs, about 30 miles north of St Pete/Tampa, was founded in the 1880's, just after the railroads connected peninsular Florida to the rest of the US, as a vacation spot for wealthy northeasterners. In the 1890's, local fishermen began collecting sponges from the reefs offshore and selling them as bathroom equipment. In 1905, a Greek fisherman introduced the idea of diving for sponges instead of hooking them from the surface, and the industry expanded. Soon a large colony of Greeks moved to the area from the Aegean Islands, where they had been sponge-diving for centuries. Tarpon Springs became the center of a multi-million dollar industry that supplied much of the sponges used in American homes.
In the 1950's, the sponge industry was crippled by a disease outbreak on the Florida reefs, and in the 60's and 70's artificial sponges replaced natural ones. As a result, most of the sponge boats turned to commercial fishing and shrimping in the Gulf of Mexico, and others turned the former sponge docks into a tourist attraction.
Today, the sponge docks are crowded with antique shops, restaurants, and places to buy Florida tourist kitsch (like seashells, natural sponges, and backscratchers made from alligator feet).
Some photos from a day in Tarpon Springs:
"The Sponge Capital of the World"
Natural sponges for sale.
A pair of fishing boats docked in the harbor.
Diver's statue
Pelicans nesting along the harbor.
The freshest seafood ever: the fishing dock is at one end, the restaurant is at the other end. If you like Greek food, Tarpon Springs is a gastronomic heaven.
The Tarpon Springs Aquarium. It's small, but a nice place to hang out for a couple hours.
The Touch Tank
The Stingray feeding tank
One of the volunteers gives a talk about "Shrek", the 150-pound Alligator Snapping Turtle.
A Clownfish
A Puffer fish
A Nurse Shark. The main shark tank also has Black-Tip Reef Sharks and Bonnethead Sharks.
A pair of Colombian Boa Constrictors. As i watched, the male was using his rear claws to scratch at the female (the first step in the mating process), but she just kept shrugging him off. Poor guy.