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Report on the Sponge Fishery of Florida and the Artificial culture of Sponges

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

E. J. Allen
Affiliation:
Hon. Secretary of the Marine Biological Association, and Director of the Plymouth Laboratory.

Summary

I. The Florida Sponge Fishery .—History of the Fishery. Kinds of sponges taken. Relative value of sponges. Methods of procuring sponges. Curing the sponges. Sponge grounds reduced in value through over—fishing.

Sponge Culture Experiments.—historical.

Experiments of Buccicli. —Description of apparatus used, and manner in which the experiments were conducted. Buccich concluded that sponge cuttings would grow to marketable size in seven years.

Experiments in Florida.—Sponge cuttings said to grow more rapidly, increasing to from four to six times their original size in six months, when placed under favourable conditions.

Memorandum by Mr. Benedict, of U.S. National Museum,.—Sponge culture experiments do not appear to have been tried to any great extent. Fishermen opposed to anything of the kind as likely to lead to monopoly, and the cutting off their means of subsistence.

Would Sponge—Culture By Cuttings Be Profitable—Marenzeller points out that this would depend on whether pieces of a sponge would in a given time together attain a greater weight than the original sponge would have reached if left undisturbed.

Suggested Experiments.—Suggestions by Mr. Bidder {see below). Fishing by means of divers, or dredging, should be tried in deeper water.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1896

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References

page 189 note The following account has been compiled, for the most part, from an article by Rathbun, in “The Fishery Industries of the United States” (Section V. vol. 2, p. 8191), published by the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries, Washington, 1887Google Scholar. The discussion of the question by Dr. Juan Vilaro [Esponjicultura cubana, Revista de Pesca Maritima VII. Madrid, 1891], was also consulted; it is compiled chiefly from the American Reports.

page 189 note The method of preparation of Bahama sponges is also stated to be inferior to that practised in Florida.

page 191 note Die Aufzucht des Badeschwammes aus Theilstücken. Verhandl. der k.k. Zoologischbotanischen Gesellschaft in Wien. Vienna, 1878. Translated in U.S. Fish Commission Report, 1879; p. 771.

page 192 note Loc. cit. p. 832.