9 6 THE FISHERIES OF THE ADRIATIC, 



SPONGES. 1 



According to Dr. Syrski many more than ioo different kinds are found 

 in the Adriatic, none of which, however, have any value, commercially 

 speaking, excepting the one species Spongia adriatica (Sponga). It appears 

 on the coast between Budua on the one hand, and Trieste and Duino on the 

 other, on rocky or otherwise hard beds, in 3 to 10 fathoms. The fisheries are 

 carried on almost exclusively by the inhabitants of the island of Crapano 

 (west of Sebenico), during calm weather, from March to October. The 

 sponges are torn off or raised by means of prongs, or tongs ; they are well 

 pressed and washed, sometimes bleached, and exposed in bags in the sea, 

 and once more soaked. There are 80 to 100 boats engaged in these fisheries, 

 each manned with two men, and each boat fishes, on an average, 300 to 400 lb. 

 a year, or together about 320 cwt., fetching from 15 to 100 florins, or an 

 aggregate of 20,000 florins. 



Three qualities are prepared for the trade ; the first (Spugne da bag?w, 

 levantine) comes from the islands of Incoronata and Zara vecchia, and is 

 worth 10 florins a kilo; the second (Spugne da cavallo, od equine) is worth 

 5 florins ; and the third {Spugne Zimoccd) is worth 3 florins, and is fished on 

 the coast of I stria. The greater part of the take is forwarded to Trieste, 

 whereas little is sold on the Dalmatian coast. 



Little or no economy is observed in the sponge fisheries. The fishermen 

 go over the same grounds year after year, instead of taking the various 

 grounds by rotation of four or five years, as ought to be the case, in order to 

 allow the sponges time for their development. This want of economy is in 

 a great part due to the customary method of fishing, which is of the 

 most primitive character, and wasteful in the highest degree. Divers and 

 divers' apparatus are unknown ; the sponges are torn off indiscriminately, 

 whether mature or not; a number are lost in drawing up the prongs, or 

 tongs, and most of what is brought to the surface is more or less damaged ; 



1 A collection of about 100 species was arranged and exhibited by MM. G. R. von Eckel at 

 the Berlin Exhibition of Fisheries, t88o. 



