A Hard Life

One of the spongers who was the most help to us was Sydney. By chance, he was the first guy we talked to when we arrived at the dock, and he was the one to take us out as he dove for sponges. Here, he met us on the second day and talked a lot about how poorly the workers are payed. He held a sponge in the doorway of his father's old house, which now holds his equipment, and talked about how Pete "squeezes" the workers. What the natives make from the sponges is insignificant in comparison to how much they sell them in Tarpon Springs and abroad.