The Sponge Docks in Tarpon Springs, Florida, will keep the fishing community front and center by granting approval for a traditional commercial fishing distribution business. City commissioners unanimously approved the site plan for the operation on Sept. 3, with the addition of Luggers Backup.
Renae Vincent, planning director, told city commissioners the applicant requested site-plan authorization to modify their small 0.2-acre upland parcel in the Community Redevelopment District Land Use and Marine Industrial-Commercial Zoning District for a commercial fishing and distribution facility. According to sources, there was a crabbing operation in the area. Vincent told Sun Coast News, “Historically, there has been similar uses on this property in the past. The subject property has been used as commercial, marina, and fishing for the past 25-plus years.”
Currently, fishing vessels use the subject property to unload fish that are distributed to local fish markets and restaurants. A vacant and gutted single-family home is also on the property. Vincent shared, “The building will primarily be used for processing incoming fish shipping orders, storage boxes, and shipping materials.”
Sources also shared that the property's additions will include four shipping containers and remodeling an existing building for storage and office space. A new pole barn, an open-air structure, will be constructed as a work area for fish taken off the boat, packed in boxes with ice, and then shipped to different locations.
The owner currently provides multiple businesses within the Sponge Docks area with fresh fish once or twice weekly.
Tarpon Springs is known as the “sponge capital of the world,” as the sponge industry helped build the Greek community of Tarpon Springs. Sponge beds were discovered in the area in the early 1900s when Greek sponge divers immigrated. The Sponge Docks officially opened in 1908, and while there are no more sponge divers in Tarpon Spring’s waters, the area's history is still alive through the locals, commercial fishing, and restaurants in the area.
