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sponge diving in florida
Beware of this Idiot representing a job on this site for divers on a sponge fishing boat. Hell feed ya full of s***. And im not even sure he has a job to offer, I talked to him and was promised work that would add up to possibly 1300 a week. Never heard from him again, after Id made plans and gave up other projects..Hes a worthless piece of s*** fisherman who thinks he knows more than he does....leave it alone
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Russell W Smith on
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How ya doin Dale, look if your hinting about that 250. well I havnt had 3 cents to rub together since I can remember. Nobodies got nothin.I guess the market is good if you know where to look for em and have the boat. I mean I was actually desparite for this job and he just never came thru. Lets just say it would have paid alot of debts...Ill drop you a line on you e-mail later ..You take care ..and if somthin pops up Ill be there in a heartbeat..Russ
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Thats aloy of info on sponge diving, you so smaaart...He Flynn ,thanks for the response, and you have a good Christmas, and New year...Russ
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Permalink Reply by A.. Parnell on
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Dale & Flynn aw the romance of making money sponge diving! The only romance of sponge diving I know of is the 1954 movie "Beneath the 12 mile reef" which happens to be one of my favorite all time dive movies. That movie motivated me to eventually try my hand at sponge diving out of Tarpon Springs, Fl. I worked for sponge merchant George Billirus and his diver Tom Lindsey who was 76 at the time. Thats where I learned the ropes of processing those sponges man ! I never worked so hard for so little money( example: three days work in the hot sun,bending, stooping, picking up,bleaching,squeezing the water out of ,repeated turning over sponges, sizing,sorting out what seemed like to be a million sponges and was paid $100 for 3 days work ). So George worked the hell out of me and Tom showed me the ropes of getting the right kind of sponges off the bottom. Tom at 76 would jump in and walk the bottom for 2 hrs at a time collecting sponges and then come up. Thats when the fun really started. Sponges unlike sea urchin and abalone harvesting require untold amounts of labor to get them ready for sale.
So by now your starting to see a picture evolve of long hrs and low wages well just hold to that thought theres more of the story to come.
So the sponges are brought up on deck then are hand placed there in the sun on the deck one at a time and burlap material is placed over them and then sprayed down with salt water which helps in the hot sun kinda merinate them so it will soften the gunk they have collected from filtering the sea water gunk thru them it is so rank its no wonder the Greeks drank so much resena that stuff is just awful but after about 3 drinks you get use to it as it coats your tongue with a kinda schalac coating . Ok now some time has gone by and its time to take the burlap off of the sponges and hand turn every one of them so the process can be repeated. Finally its time for the burlap to come off and now the long hard and process of cleaning begins. The water pressure pump is started and all of the sponges are hand blasted, beaten to remove any coral that may still be in them and on and on it goes. This is hard boring dirty and unbelievably smelly work. Thats where you need to drink some resena so the sponges stink to high heaven the resena does too and by this time you will as well. Now finally we are really having some fun sponge diving hun?
Eventually the sponges are clean enough to be threaded thru a string that is strung up in the rigging of the boat and they dry. This goes on and on until the boat can not hold any more sponges or you cant find anymore, run out of food, get pissed off and quit or just finally come into the docks. The sponges are now ready to be sold.
If your a Greek you get top price for your sponges if your not well you get min price (kinda like min wage) no matter whos boat it is or anything else thats Tarpon Springs pretty well Greek controlled.
So the moral of this story is if your not Greek be prepared to start your own sponge marketing business in the sales and marketing of sponges or take less.
Oh boy now you have your sponges but they are not ready for market they have to be trimmed, sized, bleached, soaked and have the water squeezed out of them many times and all by hand while bending stooping and hand turning each sponge and letting them dry in the hot sun and in the hot sun you will be turning them over again all by hand each and every one of them. Once all of this is completed you can now package all of them up in little packages and go out and sell them. What could be better hun ! You'll be rich in no time and your on your way. A full fledged Sponge Diver in the real Greek American tradition and can say proudly I AM A SPONGE DIVER.
Sponge diving seems easy at first glance however having been a sea urchin diver which is similar to abalone diver it makes sponge diving seem like its alot of long hours at a lower pay effort for effort. But
then again sponge diving has always had some kind of a traditional romantic helmet diving appeal that the others will never have. Watch the movie "Beneath the 12 Mile Reef" you will see what I mean.
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Amen!!
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Flynn, yep thats about it and what you end up with after that sponge diving experience. Like you say the food is great and the little town of Tarpon Springs is neat place to visit.
Have you ever try that resena ? Now that is an experience it might rival eating bluet in the Philippines. You have got it.
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sorta like a marriage, eh Ace all that damn work and your still broke and everything stinks. Now on the other hand the abaloney market sounds profitable, if you know how to get started...You might look in to that Dale.
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Russell that was funny kinda like a marriage everything stinks. A good laugh.
Ask Kurt Ward about abalone diving he is an expert on the subject.
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Dale next time you see Kurt ask him about abalone diving he is a expert on the subject.
Question : Hey do you know the difference between a dumpster diver and a urchin diver ? Answer: Urchins pay more $$$$$$$$$$
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Aw! common now Russell. I just got a call and it was from Diver Dave and he told me that he has been thru 43 divers so far and is be looking for another good diver as we speak. They will be going out in his boat and working in 4 to 6 foot swells live boating. Now theres a job for ya. Mind over matter, if you don't mind it don't matter. Who ya !
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Darn it Flynn now its time again I have to remind you that its time to put in your ear plugs because the sound waves from my laughfing from away out here in the Islands are coming your way. That above post is funnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnny-thanks. keep um coming.
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Flynn thats way to funny
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Im pretty sure that anybody that has talked to him for more than 3 minutes started to figure him out. I was starting to get pissed by his tone, a slack jawed fisherman tellin me how to dive... but thats where it clicked..just another d***head lookin to join the ranks of the few and the chapped
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