Blake Banks

Medusa and crew at dock with sponge harvest (Florida Maritime Museum - Banks Collection)

Captain Blake Banks was a lifelong commercial fisherman out of Cortez, Florida. Aboard his boat, Medusa, Captain Banks hauled fish and harvested sponges in the Gulf of Mexico and southwest Florida.

Banks harvested sponges only briefly during his long fishing career, in 1988 and 1989. During that time, he recorded information about his sponge fishing trips in his journals. He also photographed sponges harvested and his crew aboard the Medusa. 

For more information about Captain Banks and his collections, be sure to check out the Banks Collection of Ocean Inhabitants digital exhibit!

Scanned excerpt of Blake Banks journal page, July 1988 (Florida Maritime Museum - Banks Collection)  

Receipt for sponges sold from the Medusa at a Tarpon Springs auction dated June 8, 1989 (Florida Maritime Museum - Banks Collection)