Tarpon Springs' Sponge Industry

Many tourists on holiday on the beaches of Clearwater and St. Petersburg in Florida springs have made the short trip north of the town of Tarpon. The charming town with Greek restaurants, bakeries, souvenir shops and, of course, dealers lined with sponge. It is considered, after eating gyros, baklava and sweet honey-laced sugar-coated wedding cakes that started it all? How could this small town in Florida, which boasts more than 70% of the populationGreek language? The answer: because the sponge industry, this melting pot does not melt easily.

The beginning of the Tarpon Springs sponge brings us back to Key West in the early nineteenth century. Many fishermen have found grass sponges to shore after storms. This led to the development of the "hook boats, small boats, to sail or row would be brought out in the open sea. These early parasite uses a log pile with a rake with three or four teeth at the end of sponges hookshallow waters.

Soon after, the sponge industry was booming in the area of Key West. Word spread of new industry as far away as New York City, which since 1849 has been a market for animated sponge. Since there is no direct connection from Key West to New York by sea or on land, the sponges were dispatched from Key West to Tampa Bay, then carried by car from Tampa to New York City livery business from Granville Noblit, Sr. Key West was the main source of natural spongesNorth-East. This soon with the technological developments that have changed men diving for sponges enabled. The sea sponges found in the big bed with new and different varieties of sponges filled in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

In 1889, said John K. Dick Cheney, a wealthy Philadelphia banker, the sponge industry in Key West, and realized that the sponge offered diversity in the Gulf of Mexico, directly to Tampa Bay was larger and more diverse. He realized the natural advantages of locating theSponge collected closer to both the transit routes, and sponge the richest waters in the Gulf of Mexico. Soon warehouses built in what is now known as the Tarpon Springs to try to make the market leader. He and Ernest Meres merchants sponge was the first in Tarpon Springs, New York for the purchase of interests.

In 1896, John Cocoris, a buyer and sponge works greek immigrant arrived in New York City, Tarpon Springs. He went to the financial support of John Cheney and Cheney's job,recruited 500 sponge divers from Greece. The first diver was hired Kavasilas Demosthenes, who has brought his experience from the Mediterranean, as well as the second diver, Stylianos Besis. The divers were surprised by the natural wealth of the Gulf of Mexico. Sponges of thousands overshadowed the virgin and non-entered into the seabed. The floor was so thick sponge that every 10 minutes, the divers sent in large baskets full of wool sponges, the better and more stable world. On the evening ofDive boat would be filled with sponges. They began to add more ships and the people as quickly as possible.

arrived by the end of 1906, 1,500 sea sponges in Tarpon Springs greek and workers. The sponge industry has grown considerably in the years 1920 and 1930 with a fleet of over 200 ships. In 1936, Tarpon Springs has been recognized as the sponge capital of the world has recognized, and more than 2,000 Greeks had moved to the area. But in 1946, reached a disease (red tide), the Gulf of Mexico and killedalmost all sponges. To make matters worse, the invention of synthetic sponges from DuPont in 1940 also devastated the Florida sponge industry. In 1960 and 1970, the industry began rebounding sponge - even if the sponge fishermen of the Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea now had the leadership in the industry. Destiny had something else in business, because in 1986 the sponges of the Mediterranean have been exposed to diseases and almost all sponges in the Aegean and mildewwere destroyed. Tarpon Springs was once again reclaim his title as the "Sponge Capital of the World."

Tourism has now replaced as the main economic activity Tarpon Springs sponge. Thousands of visitors to the city every year to enjoy nature, play golf or fish. When shopping for art and antiques or Victorian Touring fascinating tourist districts have a unique opportunity to take a break and visit the docks cake on the Greek cultural experience here in TarponSprings.