Sponge fishing is a phenomenon unique in history. Here is a profession founded on virtual ignorance of the basic laws that govern its operation. The results are often catastrophic or even lethal. Instead of disappearing in the course of time, it has hung on and set up a tradition. This profoundly moving book documents the sponge fishers of Kalymnos. All the stages of the profession’s development are here – from ‘naked diver’ going down without any apparatus at all, to today’s diver with a special suit and breathing apparatus. Here too are the types of ship that were used, the customs that accompanied the fleet as it set out, the return, and above all the fishing up of the valuable marine product that remained for a whole century a Greek monopoly. The photographs were specially taken on land and in the depths of the sea. The book also describes simulated dives using old-style diving gear, stone-and-line, the Fernez apparatus, and so on. These dives were made possible by the help of many people on Kalymnos: the civil authorities, the local inhabitants, the Naval Museum, ex-sponge divers and divers of today.