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00:00My name's Mike Rowe, and this is my job.
00:05I explore the country looking for people who aren't afraid to get dirty.
00:09Why is it the guys with the worst gigs are the happiest people?
00:12Today was payday, actually, so that's the only reason I'm smiling.
00:15Hard-working men and women who earn an honest living.
00:18That's okay. This is scared the hell out of me. I thought it came back to life.
00:21Doing the kinds of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us.
00:26That wasn't good, was it?
00:28Well, it's a start.
00:31Now, get ready to get dirty.
00:37Coming up on Dirty Jobs.
00:41I put the squeeze on a wild sponge.
00:44Oh, boy. He's a big one. Look at him.
00:46With the help of a father-son team.
00:48Yeah, you can put those higher, huh?
00:50I know. That's what I'm doing.
00:51Wow. Get him telling the captain what to do.
00:53And I'm pretty sure everything will go smoothly.
00:57Hey, Max, something up with the mask. Stop there.
01:00It's just sponges. Is it really this complicated?
01:02We'll make it complicated.
01:04No, I'm kidding.
01:05And later, I have a devil of a time with the fence post from hell.
01:16Oh, God.
01:19Oh, God.
01:31Today, we've got an itch to visit Tarpon Springs, Florida, where they have birds, boats, and camera equipment.
01:38Lots and lots of camera equipment.
01:44Do you see all this gear?
01:46How are you going to get all this gear on this boat?
01:48Dave, why do you have so much gear?
01:50I blame Doug. He's an idiot.
01:52Doug?
01:53Look at him. He's reading manuals trying to figure out all the gear he's got.
01:56As our little series gets more and more mature, we have more and more gear.
02:03We have endless gear now.
02:04We still have basically the one Doug.
02:06But now Doug has many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many boxes.
02:09So Dave has procured another boat.
02:12Pete's going to bring the other boat over.
02:13We're going to put some of the gear on that.
02:14And then that boat, Dave, you know what that boat's called?
02:16Pete doesn't even have a name.
02:17I asked yesterday.
02:18He goes, okay, so a nameless boat captain by a guy named Pete is going to come to help us
02:22get our gear
02:23so we can hop aboard the Anastasi and go get some sponges.
02:30Can you explain this new preponderance of equipment?
02:34Well, underwater crap.
02:36Wow, look at that.
02:38Look at what?
02:39Sexy.
02:40That's Amber. She's been with us for like a couple of weeks now.
02:42You talking about this thing?
02:44We actually own this?
02:45We're renting it.
02:46What do they charge you for that?
02:47Too much.
02:49Eh, eh, eh.
02:50This is for just a second.
02:52Let me show you something extraordinary.
02:54My name is Lufa.
02:55I live on the second floor.
02:58We really are children, aren't we?
03:01I don't need your judgment, Amber.
03:04Listen, man, I can't think of much.
03:06I'm running out of weird crap.
03:07It's been five years.
03:09These ride a little high?
03:10I don't want to see this on Facebook.
03:12I got my dignity to protect.
03:14Is it crazy to walk with these?
03:17And so, after giving my image and the show's integrity some serious consideration.
03:22Ah, it's a beautiful day in Tarpon Springs, Florida.
03:25The sun is shining.
03:27The seas are calm.
03:28The docks are covered with seagull crap and chicken bones.
03:32Sponges and sponges abound.
03:36Sponges is an amazing thing.
03:38This whole community was built upon them.
03:40Thousands of different varieties.
03:42Single-celled organism.
03:43This one's called a wool sponge.
03:45We're going to go out there today, see if we can find a few.
03:47Or maybe a few of these.
03:49What can I tell you about sponges that you don't already know?
03:52Well, back in the day, they were quite the discovery.
03:54You see, in olden times, people really had no efficacious way in which to bathe themselves.
04:00They had to pour water directly onto their bodies.
04:03That's no way to go.
04:04The sponge allows you to go in and squeeze and wring stuff out.
04:07And then apply to make yourself fresh and clean, smelling, and beautiful.
04:10That's what I'm going to do today.
04:11Get fresh, clean, smelling, and beautiful.
04:13After I get filthy, stinky, dirty.
04:17Tarpon Springs is a peaceful coastal resort city on the Gulf of Mexico in central Florida.
04:23Back in the early 1900s, sponge diving was introduced to the area by a man who recruited veteran divers from
04:29the Greek islands.
04:30The sponge harvesting industry in Tarpon Springs took off, generating millions of dollars every year.
04:36Greek immigrant Tasso Karastinos and his son, Inestos, continue the tradition with their shop, sponge diver supply, and their boat,
04:46Yanastasi.
04:47Here we go, buddy.
04:48We're heading out to the sponge beds divers have been harvesting for 100 years.
04:53I'm assuming there'll be a few left for us.
04:57So this is Inestos Karastinos, and he is the, uh, what are you, the mate?
05:00You're the captain?
05:01You're the what?
05:02Um, I guess you could say the first mate.
05:04Now, your dad's, your dad's a captain now.
05:06Right.
05:07That's got to be weird.
05:08You say you're the first mate for your dad.
05:10Basically, you just do whatever you're told.
05:12Yeah.
05:14It's simple that way.
05:15Yeah.
05:16How long have you been a sponge guy?
05:17I've been diving for about 25 years.
05:20Always for sponges or just diving in general?
05:22Uh, spearfishing and sponge diving, yeah.
05:24And everything that has a Greek feel here in, uh, Tarpon Springs.
05:28The community was settled by Greeks over 100 years ago, uh, specifically for sponge diving.
05:33I think it originated in the Mediterranean, uh, thousands of years ago when sponges would
05:38wash up on the beach, and they, uh, found out they had a use for them, and they started
05:44diving in the depths to collect them, and sponge harvesting began.
05:48Like the sponge business, is it a, I mean, it's still a big going concern?
05:52I mean, don't you have people out there making these things out of man-made stuff?
05:55Yeah, there, I guess there is, uh, uh, demand for man-made sponges, but, uh, this particular
06:00sponge, they're, um, organic, environmentally friendly, and they're a renewable resource,
06:05so, uh, when we cut them from the bottom, they grow right back.
06:09So, the sponge beds that we're going to today are, are how far out?
06:13Um, we're probably going about 15 miles out today, and, uh, they're the same exact sponge
06:19beds that they were harvesting sponge off of over 100 years ago.
06:23It's an organism.
06:24It's a single cell?
06:25Yeah, it's, um, it's right next to the amoeba.
06:28It's classified as periphera, which is, uh, basically a filter feeder.
06:32What you see here is the skeleton remains of the sponge.
06:35It's got to, got to admit, man, there's a funk on the boat.
06:37Yeah, well, you, there is animal matter decomposing, and it, um, leaks out in a, like, a milk form.
06:46We call it gurry, a chocolate, really horrible type of milk.
06:50Oh, yeah.
06:51And push your hands on it and lean forward.
06:53You see that juice coming out?
06:55Oh, that's gurry?
06:56That's gurry.
06:57Ah, that's sponge diarrhea, basically, is what that is.
07:00Uh, worse, yeah.
07:03Oh, SpongeBob ass pants.
07:06It's a beautiful day on the Gulf of Mexico, and even though it's several miles to the sponge beds,
07:11the Anastasi is not a pleasure boat.
07:14It's a working boat.
07:15A little deck maintenance, then?
07:17Yeah, we have to arrange the deck so we can make room for today's catch,
07:21and, um, it'll stick together if we don't move them.
07:23Tasso?
07:24Tasso.
07:25How do you spell that?
07:26T-A-S-O, Tasso.
07:27T-A-S-O.
07:28It's easy, yes.
07:28All right, and what are you doing now?
07:30You're just...
07:30Now, I wet them down a little bit, and we're going to squeeze them and move them on this side
07:34right here.
07:35I give you a pair of gloves, and you do what I do.
07:37I'll do what you do.
07:38This one's, I got it yesterday.
07:40Uh-huh.
07:40This one's right here the day before, and this one's three days ago.
07:44They already start deteriorating.
07:45If you see, they get the spongy form.
07:47Yeah, and you want them to deteriorate, right?
07:49Yes, that's the idea.
07:50And that's why you keep them underneath the, uh, the blanket?
07:53Yes, I keep them there so they can not dry, because if the sun hits, they're dry, and there's very
07:57hard to be clean.
07:59Got it.
07:59That's the idea.
08:00And we let them actually release go far like the dying process, the deterioration.
08:04Sometimes take three days, sometimes takes four days.
08:07And then they're ready to be clean.
08:08All right.
08:09Now, for the animal malle, whatever they say, has in the air to come out, to breathe in, to drain
08:14a little bit better.
08:15So what we do, we do this.
08:17See all this gurry?
08:19Yeah, the gurry.
08:20Yeah.
08:21Now, that one, because it's not that dead, use this one.
08:25Gotcha.
08:26You've been doing this all your life now, you're so insane?
08:28I've done this for, uh, 36 years.
08:32Let me give you a smelly one.
08:34Thank you for that.
08:35That's a big boy.
08:36How much is this worth, you think?
08:37For me, maybe 10 bucks.
08:39Uh, from the gift shop or the place, uh, the cylinder retail, maybe 50 to 80 bucks.
08:45You got it.
08:46You kill it.
08:46All right.
08:51You're doing good.
08:54Sometimes you have to do it at 500 of them, sometimes 600.
08:58Depends how many you catch.
08:59But that's good, right?
09:00The more you're doing, the more money you're making.
09:02You got it.
09:03Right?
09:03You speak Greek all of a sudden.
09:09So will this sponge be sold just like this, or would they cut it?
09:12Would they make it smaller?
09:13They cut it to the size that'd be useful.
09:15What's it eat?
09:16How's it live?
09:17It filters plankton.
09:19He's plankton.
09:19Plankton.
09:20So, like, where's the food come in?
09:22Like, where would its mouth be?
09:23Well, they just filter nutrients through these holes on the side, and the big holes in the top,
09:29they pump the water out.
09:30So that's like its butt, basically.
09:32Really?
09:33Oh, wow.
09:34There isn't a nervous system or any organ, so it wouldn't have a butt.
09:38It's not such a thing, female or male.
09:40They're all the same thing.
09:42How do they breed?
09:44How do you get sponges, new sponges?
09:46Once a year, I guess, they discharge thousands of little seeds in the form of dust, and the
09:52tide, a spore, throws them away, and it takes them away, and they set them to the rock, and
09:57they regrow.
09:58A lot of them, I guess, they just get lost.
10:01And when we cut them, a lot of them, they regenerate right where we cut them.
10:06So, even if a little piece like that stays on the rock, still they're going to regrow.
10:12Interesting.
10:14The amazing buttless sponge, becoming more fascinating by the minute.
10:18In anticipation of our catch today, we've got to clear some space from the front of the
10:23boat.
10:23You toss to me, I toss to you?
10:25Yeah.
10:25Moving sponges, how hard can it be?
10:28Just toss it to the deck.
10:29Oh, I'm sorry.
10:30That's a different.
10:31It's a little roll-em kind.
10:33Oh, roll-em.
10:33Yeah, you go.
10:34I don't know.
10:36I think these smell worse than the last batch.
10:38Now, these are grass sponges.
10:40Yeah.
10:40That's a big one.
10:41Yeah, that's a good one.
10:42Would she worth?
10:43Over a $100 sponge.
10:45Oh, it's interesting.
10:45So, they're basically $100 bills lying all over the ocean floor.
10:49Sure.
10:52Spent a lot of time bent over, huh, Captain?
10:54Yeah.
10:55Yeah.
10:56As long as you're bent over, might as well pick something up, right?
11:00Yeah, you can put those higher, huh?
11:02I know.
11:02That's what I'm doing.
11:03Make some room to walk around over there.
11:05Wow.
11:06Get him telling the captain what to do.
11:09Bold move.
11:13Coming up, our duct tape supply is plentiful.
11:16Once again, it's always the duct tape.
11:21Unfortunately, our air supply, not so much.
11:24Maybe the pressure is relaxing.
11:26Something relaxing.
11:26No way.
11:27Hey, you want to go down?
11:28It's smooth sailing for me and the crew once again.
11:32Later, feel my pain in real time as a tiny job grows into a monster.
11:39The sun goes down, tide goes out.
11:40It doesn't matter.
11:42I'm here until the post is out.
11:50Time now to prepare for our dive with the help of a high-tech product that helps connect
11:56the breathing hose to the pump.
11:58Once again, it's always the duct tape, the secret ingredient.
12:01That's amazing stuff, huh?
12:03Our whole show is held together with it.
12:06You get this, basically duct taping these two lines together, about 800 feet.
12:15Shouldn't take but a minute.
12:16It looks like a little situation here.
12:20Because they work in relatively shallow water, sponge divers don't use scuba-type air tanks.
12:26They use these long, compressor-fed air hoses, hoses hopefully spooled in neat piles that don't
12:33get tangled and cut off a rookie diver's only source of life-giving air.
12:36If I understand it right, I'm going to have a lead vest on and a lot of heavy weight, and
12:41we'll be sinking quickly to the bottom.
12:43Hopefully, there's a rope.
12:44I can control my descent, because with a full face mask like this, you can't grab your nose
12:50to depressurize, right?
12:51So in here, you've got these two little plastic-coated dingleberries that sort of jut out at you.
12:57And what you have to do is you have to turn these and adjust them so they fit in your
13:01nostril.
13:02And then you can blow out into these things, which is kind of disgusting.
13:06What if I'm certified for this?
13:08Who's the other one back?
13:09It must be.
13:10I'm here.
13:10The other one.
13:10The other one.
13:11Tesso keeps a close eye on the GPS and sonar, which indicate that we've finally arrived.
13:20That can't be, what, 20 feet?
13:21Yeah, we're about 24 feet.
13:27See those little jellyfish?
13:28That's a Portuguese man-of-war.
13:30They feel really good.
13:31He seems modest in size.
13:34Yeah.
13:34Don't let his eyes fool you.
13:36While the crew gears up, I suit up and get a new pair of shoes.
13:41So you could really run strong across the bottom, across rocks?
13:47Uh-huh.
13:47And, of course, duct tape, once again, makes everything safe and secure.
13:53Okay, fellas, to the cameras.
14:00Once Doug and Troy were in the water, we realized we hadn't discussed currents in this area, which, as it
14:05turns out, are pretty serious.
14:06In a matter of moments, the boys are dragged several yards from the boat.
14:10While we're thinking everything's fine, it's taking all their strength just to keep from getting swept away.
14:16The extra weight and the bulk, with cameras and air tank, more than doubles the drag the current exerts on
14:22them.
14:29Troy's response time is half of what it usually is.
14:32Not a good sign.
14:33Anestos quickly grabs his camera.
14:36Yeah, I'm rethinking the hood.
14:38This guy, the vest hood, or just the hood hood?
14:40Just the hood.
14:41Cold?
14:42That's the situation to put that on.
14:43Troy's cold and incredibly winded.
14:45He can barely catch his breath.
14:49You're going to need to take your arms off.
14:50Yeah, I know.
14:52Troy really didn't like the idea of wearing a hood until he got in the water.
14:56I need to adjust my...
14:58I need to adjust the strap on my mask, which is behind you.
15:02I have weight.
15:03What are they doing?
15:04I'm weight on Troy.
15:05I need a minute to get my breath.
15:10There you go.
15:13Once Troy's back in the water, it takes about three seconds for the guys to be back in the same
15:18predicament.
15:20Troy lost his spin on it, but hard to tell Dave.
15:23Hurts his head, now his feet.
15:25Okay, well, don't wash your fingers.
15:26Wash your fingers.
15:28Oh.
15:30How cold are you spent?
15:32Wasted.
15:33Wasted or not, Barsky does have a show to shoot.
15:36If you can't do this, I've got to make the call right now.
15:39Actually, you know what?
15:40I think you split the difference.
15:41Once you come up, get your breath, get squared away, and come join us.
15:45Yeah.
15:47I think he's going to get it.
15:48We're not going to use that.
15:55Make it look easy.
15:58What am I doing, man?
15:59My boots are all jacked up.
16:01I got one of my cameramen nearly drowned.
16:03What do you think?
16:04It's just sponges.
16:05Is it really this complicated?
16:06We'll make it complicated.
16:08No kidding, man.
16:10Ay, ay, ay.
16:11Go ahead and...
16:15Just the one hair.
16:16Nothing to worry about.
16:18This is about 65 pounds.
16:22Okay, he's going to jump in.
16:23Mr. Rowe, you go ahead and get on this ladder right here.
16:27Okay, go find some sponge.
16:29Maxo, something's wrong with the mask.
16:31Stop the air.
16:32Says something's wrong with the mask.
16:34Turn back to go up, yeah.
16:36Sam, wait a minute.
16:37Come back up.
16:38When he gets all the way to the bottom, Tasso's mask stops working.
16:42He has to come back up.
16:44I can't breathe, man.
16:46Hit that, and it'll give you some air.
16:48Try it one more time.
16:50Tasso and I are wearing special masks, rigged for underwater communication.
16:55Talking works fine.
16:56Breathing?
16:57Some s***, man.
16:59Not so great.
17:00Something, man, something.
17:02Stopped complete.
17:03This is a very dangerous mask, man.
17:06Yeah, see if that's...
17:12Maybe the pressure's relaxing.
17:14Something relaxing.
17:15No way.
17:16No way.
17:17Hey, you want to go down?
17:24I'm all for sticking my neck out a little bit, but this whole thing is making me really
17:29queasy in the pit of my stomach.
17:31I don't know, man.
17:34A lot of hope.
17:35A lot of hope and faith and dreams.
17:40Coming up.
17:40We have a diver over here filming the anchor.
17:43Big mistakes make Barsky ready to sacrifice a cameraman.
17:47It's a heck of a situation, you knuckle.
17:50He may even sacrifice me.
17:52Oh, boy.
17:53But Dave will never sacrifice audio quality.
17:56You'll be able to hear all of my bad language and cries of terror.
18:00Crystal clear.
18:01This is the first sponge I've ever cut off of the ocean floor.
18:15Tell him to get some sponges and come on up when we get out of here.
18:19You know, in all the hubbub, we kind of forgot about Doug.
18:21Just floating around out there.
18:23Oh, well.
18:24He'll be fine.
18:25I'm still not clear what to do if something really goes wrong down there.
18:28Take off the mask.
18:29Drop the lead.
18:30Swim right to the top.
18:31Okay.
18:32Yeah.
18:33All right.
18:34That seems reasonable.
18:36Okay.
18:37Yeah, it's just bringing back a lot of memories, to tell you the truth.
18:42I hope good memories.
18:43No.
18:45Yeah.
18:46This takes me back to diving with sharks in the Bahamas.
18:48All of a sudden, way down on the bottom, no air.
18:52Good times.
18:54I was out of air.
18:55I didn't breathe from the bottom up.
18:58Forty-five feet down.
19:00Without a breath of air.
19:02No way.
19:04So, that unpleasant memory is putting me a little on edge right about now.
19:09Fortunately, Dave senses my discomfort and says he'll cancel the shoot if I'm too chicken to make the dive.
19:16Cordial, even under stress.
19:18I politely decline his offer.
19:20I got an out.
19:21I don't need an out from you.
19:22Oh, yeah, you do.
19:22I don't need a from you, dude.
19:24Well, then I'm not asking you.
19:24I don't care what you're asking.
19:26Say yes or no.
19:27F*** off.
19:28What?
19:28Yes or no?
19:29Yes or no.
19:30Well, I mean...
19:33That's like a constant fear.
19:35You have to f*** those feet to be rude about it.
19:39Come on.
19:40I'm asking.
19:41You don't have to call me names.
19:42Well, put one of these on.
19:44We'll have a conversation.
19:45Let him choke the light out of here.
19:47Watch the expert nearly drown.
19:49Yeah, it is.
19:50And then we'll chat about rudeness.
19:53He knew he was drowning, though, so he got out.
19:55He's an expert.
19:57I don't know.
19:58It doesn't matter.
19:59It doesn't matter.
19:59All right.
20:01Start losing your breath, and you're drowning.
20:04It's what?
20:05You start losing your breath, and you're drowning.
20:07No, I remember the feeling, dude.
20:08That's when I'm back in the Bahamas now.
20:10I kept the whole thing.
20:11It's that...
20:12It's starting to remind me of that, too.
20:16And you made it through that one, so happy ending all around.
20:21What point does a man learn his lessons, you know?
20:25This isn't the Bahamas.
20:26This is the Gulf.
20:26It's the other side of the Panhandle.
20:28The other side of the peninsula.
20:36All right, so as I understand it, I'm going to take the one that Kasu just tested, and he's
20:43going to put on something that he trusts a little better.
20:45He won't be able to talk, so you won't be able to hear him, but you'll be able to hear
20:49all of my bad language and cries of terror crystal clear.
20:55Last time.
21:00Oh, boy.
21:03Okay, trying to decompress, trying to equalize.
21:08It's very frustrating not being able to hear him.
21:10He's taking my hand, putting it through a loop.
21:13Ah, no, he's telling me to hold on to this yellow cord and follow him.
21:18And now we are running across the bottom, looking for sponges.
21:25He's handing me the knife.
21:27We found a sponge.
21:29We'll now attempt to cut the sponge.
21:33Cutting a sponge.
21:34This is the first sponge I've ever cut off of the ocean floor.
21:38Nearly through.
21:41And through.
21:44The sponge had been removed.
21:46The sponge goes into the bag.
21:49I thought that went pretty well.
21:51Let's go get another one.
21:52Back on the boat, Troy's caught his breath.
21:54He's finally ready to join us.
21:56Okay, this is a good spot.
21:57Just go in and go straight down, okay?
21:59To your right.
22:00To your right.
22:00Right over there.
22:01They're about ten feet in front of those bubbles.
22:07As Troy slowly makes his way over to us, I'm kind of doing the zero gravity shuffle.
22:15Oh, several sponges down here.
22:17Some of these things look like little cactus.
22:19Look at that.
22:20That's very cool.
22:22I'm struggling to stay on the bottom.
22:25I'm too buoyant.
22:27Here's a sponge with our name on it.
22:30I'm going to pull this one off.
22:33Here we go.
22:41Meanwhile, believe it or not, Troy can't find us.
22:43So, being the responsible cameraman he is, he begins to shoot B-roll, starting with the
22:49boat's anchor, then moving on to squiggly things, and little ball things, and square
22:54things with long tails, and things that look like the alien, and bowling balls for nine-fingered
23:01bowlers.
23:01And finally, things that make him realize he's just been going in circles.
23:07We have a diver over here that must be filming the anchor.
23:14He's surfacing.
23:15Troy!
23:16Troy!
23:19Swim on the surface!
23:21No!
23:23It's a heck of a situation you've got to go.
23:26Just in case he's never found, Troy documents his possible final moments.
23:32Probably less than 50 feet away from Troy, the sponge harvest is going swimmingly.
23:37Hard to walk.
23:39Hard to float.
23:40Hard to keep up with this guy.
23:43Oh, boy.
23:44He's a big one.
23:45Look at him.
23:47Look at that.
23:53Beautiful.
24:00Up top, Dave notices that Troy has now drifted to the other side of the boat, where he continues
24:06to shoot fascinating shots of empty water, but still has yet to shoot interesting shots
24:12of Tasso and me.
24:14Wait a minute.
24:14I think you missed him.
24:16No way.
24:17Yeah.
24:17See, he's bubbled faster.
24:20See that?
24:22I think he's further south.
24:28The situation is, even if he wanted to come this way, he won't be able to pedal against
24:33the current.
24:35The currents in this part of the Gulf are relentless, so Troy's day is done, and Dave
24:41sends the equipment boat to pick him up.
24:44Tell you what, it's a good thing we have that extra boat out there to round these fellas
24:51up.
24:52It's a good thing, because Troy might very well have drifted out into open water, and
24:56we would have lost these magnificent tapes of unforgettable footage.
25:02Close call.
25:08Carnivorous sponges have been found around the world.
25:11Sponges do not have mouths or stomachs, so they use their cells to engulf the flesh of
25:16their victim, each cell digesting a tiny part of the captured prey.
25:25Praise God, the dive was finally over.
25:28What are you saying?
25:30You crazy old man.
25:33We really need about 20,000 more.
25:37Hey, that's great, man.
25:39That's great.
25:39Oh, here we go.
25:41Current's crazy.
25:42Is this one?
25:42That's a finger sponge.
25:43Right.
25:45We got a few wool.
25:46A yellow.
25:47That's a yellow.
25:48Yeah, I got that one.
25:49Okay.
25:49I remember this one.
25:50Oh, that was a good one.
25:51Good time, this guy here.
25:52That one had to, never forget it, man.
25:53That's a grass.
25:54That was my ashtray sponge.
25:55You got a wool, nice wool, right there.
25:58You know, that was my brain.
25:59My brain sponge.
26:00I looked at this, I thought, yeah, that's about it.
26:03Let me early.
26:04I wish the other camera was working, and we can talk.
26:07I know.
26:08I had so many interesting things I wanted to tell you.
26:10Me too.
26:11I know.
26:11The tough we could have said we'd done.
26:12I tried to talk through my record, and I was kind of...
26:15We were screaming at each other, just bubbles.
26:17We were down there, couldn't find anything, but Nemo.
26:20Jordan, he went looking for you guys, but he kept on missing you.
26:23He, like, overshot you twice.
26:27A typical day's catch would be about 750 sponges.
26:31We didn't quite make the quota.
26:33That's all we got.
26:34It doesn't look like that much here.
26:35If Tasso hadn't slowed things down, whining about his mask, it might have been a whole other story.
26:40Okay, so we are now much closer to home, I guess, huh?
26:45Yeah, we have a little bit more work to do, though.
26:48Of course we do.
26:48We need to clean the sponge that are ready to clean so we can open up the deck a little
26:53more.
26:54Hopefully make the sponge so it just has clear, clean water in it.
26:57What we're going to want to do here is fill it up with water.
27:00Nice.
27:02Slam it on the deck.
27:03I see.
27:03Squeeze the water out of it.
27:05Squeeze it out.
27:05If it's not clear, repeat the process.
27:08It's like a shampoo.
27:09All right.
27:11Spray it all the way around.
27:16I probably should be paying attention, but the flies on this boat are driving me nuts.
27:24Clean?
27:26Are you ready?
27:26I'm ready, man.
27:27I'm in.
27:29Ah.
27:30Keep an eye.
27:30Watch my back with the flies.
27:31I got your back.
27:33Ah, look at all the poo coming out of it.
27:35Side to side.
27:36Side to side.
27:37Quickly.
27:37Fast, fast, fast.
27:38What's the rush, man?
27:39What's the rush?
27:40We have 2,000 of them to clean.
27:44Everybody's in such a hurry anymore, you know?
27:46You got to hurry with the gurry and the fringe on top.
27:50Yeah, give me an...
27:50Oh, look at that.
27:51This one still doesn't smell good.
27:53That's a bad sign, right?
27:54Fill it up with water and bang it down.
27:56Hey, sponge it!
27:59Step on it.
28:00Yeah, if you have to.
28:01Yeah.
28:02If you have to.
28:02Feels pretty good, actually.
28:13Not bad, huh?
28:14Pretty good.
28:16I mean, the fact that you said you've been in this same basic sponge bed now for 100 years,
28:21it really is a sustainable kind of fishery, if you think about it.
28:23Absolutely, yeah.
28:24When we cut them, they release a spore, and the sponge that is left on the rock, it regrows.
28:31So, basically, the more we harvest, the more sponge are available in the future.
28:36That's like the opposite of every single fishery in the world.
28:41Now, we clean 15,000 to 20,000 sponge like that on a trip.
28:45Like this?
28:46Yes.
28:46Over how many days?
28:48About three or four weeks.
28:4915,000.
28:51That's in 20 days.
28:54Like 750 of these a day.
28:59You guys are earning your money, that's for sure.
29:02And so the mighty Anastasi continues home, decks laden with the day's bountiful sponge catch
29:08that could net the Karastinos family and crew maybe $40.
29:12The dolphins, following us home, almost seem to mock us with their laughter.
29:18In just a couple of hours, we'll take our meager catch to the Acme Sponge and Chammy Company,
29:23where they'll do some serious additional deep cleaning, rinsing, and drying.
29:27Then, our pathetic handful of sponges will be trimmed of coral and shells before they're sized,
29:34sorted, and boxed up to be shipped to auto stores, paint and hardware stores,
29:38and beauty and bath shops all over the country.
29:41All thanks to the brave, hard-working sponge divers like the Karastinos.
29:49Coming up, the charming tale of a magical fence post, a handsome prince,
29:57and a big fat hernia.
29:59This is about the most tedious work a fella can do.
30:13Now, the day goes by, it seems, where somebody doesn't stop me and ask me what the dirtiest job I
30:16ever had was.
30:17I don't mind the question, really, but after 300 jobs, the answer gets a little complicated.
30:22I normally just say whatever the last one was, and we all go on with our lives.
30:26But I got this question in the mail the other day that asks kind of a similar question in a
30:31different way.
30:31This is from Stacy B., and Stacy says, Dear Mike, tell me something, what was the hardest job you've ever
30:37done?
30:38And that got me thinking.
30:39And I realized I didn't have an obvious answer, because it's not something you've seen deliberately or intentionally featured.
30:47See, typically what happens with us, we go out to do a job,
30:49and we stumble across some unexpected task that is involved, but tertiary to the job itself.
30:59And the next thing you know, three, four, five hours of your life sucked away like that.
31:03Case in point, a guy named Ed who plugs abandoned mine shafts in Northern California.
31:10Can we go down together?
31:11Yeah, let's go down together.
31:13All right.
31:14I went there to help Ed plug the shafts, which was kind of interesting.
31:17But somewhere during the course of the day, we had to remove a fence post.
31:21This stuff comes out?
31:22Yep.
31:24Just a regular old steel post that somebody had driven into the ground.
31:28It was in our way.
31:29Figured it would take about three minutes.
31:34Probably trick-toed in there.
31:35I would use a shovel.
31:37So I took a shovel and a pick, and I got busy.
31:40What happened next is just, well, Stacy B., hard.
31:52How'd you get that thing out of there, Mark?
31:54Should I pull the other?
31:55Come on.
31:57I think this one's...
32:00This one's different.
32:02It's different?
32:03Looks just like this one.
32:10Oh, I love that sound.
32:11That's good.
32:16Maybe they poured concrete.
32:29Come on, man.
32:30Let's just pull that out of there.
32:33Okay, that's really in there.
32:34I gotta tell you, man.
32:35Because I know you're a big, strong son of a gun, but that's in there.
32:41This is about the most tedious work a fella can do.
32:46Rock hammer, iron post for two or three feet in the ground.
32:51Sometimes it just pops right out.
32:53Other times, they're stuck in there like an Excalibur.
33:00Much better than it did when it started.
33:04As I struggled with this stupid piece of angled steel, everything was telling me I ought to just give up.
33:10It was the end of the day, after all.
33:12The crew was tired.
33:13Ed was tired.
33:14I was exhausted.
33:16But I couldn't stop.
33:17Because in my warped little mind, I swore the post was going to pop out any second.
33:23Which I guess is the downside of my overly optimistic attitude.
33:30No, not quite.
33:31Okay.
33:33Hey, Mike.
33:34You know, the nice thing about that fence post being in there so well is that it's definitely going to
33:38go a long ways towards keeping the casual pedestrian from walking into the hole.
33:44Unfortunately, that's not much help to you right now as you're slaving away, toiling, under your great burden there.
33:52I was about to say you were a glass half full optimist kind of guy.
33:56I am.
33:56You wrapped it up with a half empty sort of pessimist kind of guy.
34:00Well, you know, I was looking at your glass then.
34:03See, I'm a realist.
34:04I figure in a situation like that, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
34:13It's not the problem with the fluid.
34:14Somebody gave me the wrong glass.
34:19It's funny how your priorities will change during the course of a day, you know.
34:25I realize it's important work.
34:27As far as I'm concerned, there's no way this isn't going to get done.
34:31I'm confident.
34:32But the odds of this post getting out of the ground, to me, this has become, you know, seminal.
34:40Well, it's going to come out.
34:43That's when I know my day's over.
34:46When the post is out?
34:47Yep.
34:49Ed tells me that three out of four people surveyed feel that good fence posts make good neighbors.
34:54He also tells me the steel fence post, along with barbed wire, was a powerful force in shaping the American
35:01West.
35:02Oftentimes, pitting the interest of farmers against ranchers.
35:06Unfortunately, he told me these things when our cameras weren't rolling.
35:12Me and you, ready?
35:14Yeah.
35:15One, two, three.
35:18Ah!
35:20Oh.
35:22That might have been the spleen.
35:24Right now, I'm hoping Ed will regale us with more fascinating fence post facts.
35:29So I'm drawing him out by remaining completely silent.
35:33That's a technique professional TV hosts often use.
35:36You know, I used to plan my vacations and my life around the maternity habits of bats.
35:44Oh, of bats?
35:46Bats, yeah.
35:47And then, about April 1st, they start gestating.
35:53But the cool thing is, they actually breed in September or October.
36:00Right?
36:01And then they'll either hibernate or migrate to, as the scientists say, escape in time or place to, you know,
36:14for the winter.
36:16So they're pregnant when they hibernate?
36:17No, they have, I think the technical term is called a spermatophore.
36:22They are carrying the stuff, but they haven't, I don't think, they don't start gestating until April.
36:32So it's nine months, more or less.
36:35No, well, it's two months.
36:36Wait a minute, April?
36:37May, June, July, September.
36:39You got knocked up in September.
36:41October, November, December, January, February, March, April.
36:43Seven.
36:44You had the, you did the deed in September, but you weren't actually pregnant until April.
36:49Well, what kind of diabolical sperm is that?
36:52Well, it's one that wants to stick around for a while.
36:55And what do you call it again?
36:57Spermatophore.
36:58Huh.
36:58Is what I'm told it's called.
37:00So they can lay the seed, literally, before it even ovulates or hits the egg, whatever you call it.
37:07I haven't been there to watch them do it, but that's what they tell me happens.
37:12I'm sure it's true.
37:16If this were a show about bats, man, the last ten minutes would have been pretty usable.
37:24Well, let me come back here and do a bat retrospective.
37:32That's my hat, Chris, would you?
37:36All I need is my lucky hat.
37:38With my lucky ball cap, I can pull this out.
37:46There we go.
37:49Well, it's been a pleasure having you out here on the site.
37:51I'm not done yet, dude.
37:52I want the post out.
37:54I think we're...
37:55There's no...
37:55I don't care.
37:56The sun goes down, tide goes out.
37:57It doesn't matter.
37:58I'm here until the post is out.
38:00Okay.
38:01You understand, right?
38:02I do.
38:03All right.
38:03Closure.
38:04Absolutely.
38:06I don't finish much these days.
38:11The least I can do is finish this.
38:14Coming up, the action-packed finale of my fence post fiasco.
38:22I'm pretty sure we can't use any of this.
38:32Welcome back, everyone.
38:33When you last saw me, I was pulling out a fence post.
38:35Now, I'm pulling out a fence post.
38:40Yeah, the work is hard and frustrating.
38:44But the strong emotional support you can count on from your fellow team members really does make it all worthwhile.
38:51I suppose the fact that I've gotten out, like, three posts and you're still on number one is weighing heavily
38:56on your mind, too?
38:58Well, what do you do for a living?
39:01Oh, yeah, this.
39:03Right.
39:04Yeah, you pull these out for a living.
39:06Right.
39:07That's good.
39:10All right, Mike.
39:11You ready to try some extraordinary measures there?
39:15What do you think I've been doing?
39:17I've been watching it.
39:19It gets your ass kicked.
39:21I'm going to pull on this post, and what I'd like you to do is smack the side of it
39:24with that hammer.
39:25I'm going to pull on it.
39:26I'd like you to smack the side of it with a hammer.
39:28All right.
39:30Ready?
39:30It's personal now, remember.
39:53I'm pretty sure we can't use any of this.
39:57All right, look, I'm just going to pull this out.
39:58Excuse me.
39:59Okay.
40:00It's all you...
40:08All right, hang on.
40:09We're moments away.
40:12I'm moments away from stroke.
40:16You know, here's a bat tidbit about strokes.
40:19Oh, God.
40:22This guy was determined to make a show about bats.
40:25Doesn't matter if there are no bats in it.
40:27Worked 14 hours digging a hole.
40:30You're going to bring it back to bats and a dead cart.
40:36Dirty pig.
40:38No, you dirty post.
40:39Post.
40:40Post.
40:41East.
40:46Snart.
40:47Scores.
40:48I don't know what you mean.
40:50I don't know what you mean.
40:52I don't know what you mean.
41:08What's happening here from a physics standpoint?
41:11What's happening?
41:12It was driven down through a bunch of rocks.
41:14So the same rocks that went down between are now acting like barbs on a drywall anchor or something like
41:22that.
41:24I wish I'd have thought this through.
41:27The tidbit was, in the vampire series of bats, their saliva has an anticoagulant property, so the blood will keep
41:37running.
41:38Well, that anticoagulant property is 18 times stronger than coumadin, which is the best thing we have for thinning blood.
41:46Exactly.
41:48So they're actually doing work with saliva from the vampire series of bats for stroke victims.
41:58I'm glad you stuck with that.
41:59That was worthwhile.
42:00Bad bat.
42:01Oh!
42:02You pulled Excalibur out!
42:04I was going to do that!
42:07You thought the house would get with him here, too.
42:09Oh, you're done, isn't it?
42:10You get the what?
42:12Bang me over the head with it?
42:14What'd you say?
42:16That means I also get Guinevere, too.
42:18Yeah, yeah, take Guinevere.
42:19You can have it.
42:20I've read my, I've read, I know how this story ends.
42:22And I'm pretty sure I know how this story ends, too.
42:25With a rusty steel fence post and a sore, stiff back.
42:29See you next time.
42:30Do you mind if I take the post?
42:31You, um...
42:32I'm taking it regardless.
42:35Well, it comes down to this.
42:36If you go to discovery.com right now and suggest a brand new dirty job, my crew and I can
42:43keep working and keep dining on lobster, as is our custom.
42:47However, if you don't, we will lose our jobs and be forced back on the street.
42:53And we'll be dining on this.
42:54Our fate is pretty much in your hands.
43:05Stupid head.
43:07I lean around my neck, especially here.
43:11So I point these rushes.
43:13Yeah.
43:13Because you get rushed.
43:15And then, uh, it becomes very pain and ass out here if you have to dive every day for 20
43:20minutes.
43:20Points all her own.
43:21Way up high.
43:22Depends.
43:23Where the doctor was.
43:24Way up firm and high.
43:26Okay.
43:31I'm fine.
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