The Sponging Heritage

From the 1840s until 1938 sponging was the largest industry in the Bahamas, employing thousands of men who worked the shallow banks off Andros in small sloops, hooking sponges from the sea floor with long poles through glass-bottomed buckets. Nassau's Sponge Exchange handled the trade and the wealth built much of what stands on Bay Street. In 1938 a fungal disease swept the beds and destroyed something like ninety-nine per cent of the commercial sponge in a matter of months, and the industry never recovered its scale. Sponges did return, and a small managed fishery works again today, exporting mostly to Europe.

What's there

• The sponge kraals - the pens where sponges were cleaned, still visible.
• Historical photographs - the sponging fleet in the Nassau collections.
• Modern sponging - the small fishery working the banks again.
• Processed sponges - sold in Nassau and on Andros.

When to go

Year-round. Sponge processing can be seen informally at Red Bays and elsewhere on Andros. The historical material is in the Nassau museums and the public library collection.

Before you go

There is no dedicated sponging museum and the story is scattered across displays. Modern sponging is a small working fishery, not set up for visitors, and seeing it means being on Andros and asking. Many sponges sold to tourists in Nassau are imported synthetic or Mediterranean product rather than Bahamian.

Nearby

Andros holds the working fishery; the Nassau museums hold the history.