On the Sponge Islands : Loss and Restoration in the Aegean

On the Sponge Islands weaves together natural history and environmental reckoning.

On the Sponge Islands follows Julia Martin’s journey through the Greek Dodecanese, where she returns three times over five years to trace the cultural and ecological legacy of sponge diving. Drawn by the ancient marine life of the Aegean Sea, Martin finds that the porosity of sponges—once symbols of utility and wonder—has also made them vulnerable, mirroring the fragility of the ecosystem and the communities entwined with it.

Her first visit introduces a cast of islanders—Manuel, Aphrodite, and Lefteris—whose stories reveal the rise and fall of the sponge trade and its entanglement with environmental devastation. The islands bear scars of conflict, both human and ecological, yet the Aegean remains a luminous force.

On her second journey, Martin is recovering from cancer treatment. Her encounters deepen with old and new friends, including Orfeas—a man whose name echoes mythic returns from death. Her reflections grow more personal as she begins to see the sponge islands both as a microcosm of the global environmental crisis and as a place where recovery, both human and ecological, may be possible.

By 2022, during her final visit amid the postpandemic, restoration has become central. The tiny island of Halki, once emblematic of decline, reimagines itself as the first “Gr-Eco” island, powered by green technology. On Rhodes, Martin meets Zinovia, a pioneering female diver and activist scientist who embodies the region’s future.

Through Martin’s elegant, searching prose, On the Sponge Islands connects natural history, personal recovery, and environmental reckoning. It is a story of extinction and resilience, suffering and beauty, fragility and hope. Above all, it insists that it’s not too late—not yet.