Originally shared on Instagram on November 29, 2025. Photography and story by Mark Middleton.
This photograph is proof that you don’t have to board a plane or travel halfway across the world to make a meaningful image. Sometimes the best stories are sitting right in your own backyard.
I shot this frame back in 2005, while fishing the Anclote River in Tarpon Springs. These two old working shrimp boats—NORTHER out of Apalachicola and SUNDOWNER out of Tarpon Springs—were tied together, weathered, beaten, and resting in the shallows like two retired prizefighters leaning on each other. You could see the decades of hard Gulf life etched into the paint, the wood, the rigging. Even in black and white, they told a story.
What’s interesting is that these boats weren’t just abandoned. They became part of something bigger.
Tarpon Springs has one of the oldest and most culturally rich working waterfronts in Florida. Beyond the famous sponge docks, the town has always had a strong fleet of shrimpers, fishing boats, and small commercial vessels that worked the coast from Apalachicola to Key West. As some of these older vessels reached the end of their seaworthy life, the State of Florida and Pinellas County would periodically acquire them for artificial reef projects.
Both the Sundowner and the Norther were among the derelict shrimp boats removed from the Anclote area in the mid-2000s. They were transported offshore and intentionally sunk to create structure for marine life—part of Florida’s long-running program to recycle old vessels into reefs that support grouper, snapper, and countless other species. These reefs continue to grow today, long after the boats themselves disappeared beneath the surface.
So even though the boats are gone, their stories didn’t just end quietly in the river—they’re now part of the Gulf’s underwater world, providing habitat and helping restore fisheries.
Standing on the deck of my skiff , I had no idea this photo would become a small piece of local history. I just knew it felt authentic. Real Florida. Weathered, gritty, still beautiful.
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