over a considerable period of time; or, 

 the plots to be cultivated could be located 

 near areas known to grow superior in- 

 dividuals. 



2. A long-term lease of the bottom spong- 

 ing rights would have to be obtained. 



3. The necessity for constantly patrolling 

 and protecting the plantation area from 

 vandalism or theft would be expensive. 



4. The possibility of almost complete loss 

 of several years of work by storm is 

 always present. 



5. W. Smith (personal communication) stated 

 that during 1938 the sponge disease killed 

 almost all of the sponges in areas where 

 there was a high sponge concentration. 

 On the other hand, a much larger per- 

 centage of the sponges in areas of low 

 concentration were able to survive. This 

 at least suggests that with cultivated 

 sponges at concentrations of one per 

 square yard any sponge disease would 

 spread rapidly from one sponge to the 

 other and quickly result in large numbers 

 of free-floating or free-swimming stage 

 of such disease organisms. Once started, 

 therefore, a disease that would normally 

 be only somewhat destructive in natural 

 sponge beds might quickly reach epi- 

 demic proportions in a cultivated bed. 



6. Because of the slow growth rate of 

 sponges it would not be until the fourth 

 year that any returns could be expected 

 and not until the seventh that the planta- 

 tion would be fully productive. 



A rough schedule for planting and harvesting 

 using the methods described above for the 

 Bahamas would be as follows: 



1. Planting would be carried out during a 

 limited part of the year when weather 

 conditions would be most favor able, using 

 a crew of about nine aboard a sloop to 

 collect the sponges and a crew of four to 

 plant the cuttings in the selected area. 



2. Under actual conditions as many as 1,500 

 cuttings can be planted in 1 day by the 



crew of four, but the problem of gather- 

 ing stone and sponges to maintain a supply 

 for the planters would become increas- 

 ingly difficult. Assuming that one good- 

 sized sponge would supply 8 cuttings, 

 about 7,000 "wild" sponges would have 

 to be gathered to plant 50,000 cuttings. 

 A rate of 50,000 plantings per year would 

 have to be maintained for the first 3 

 years. During the fourth year two plant- 

 ing crews could do all the work, harvest- 

 ing the first year's planting of cuttings 

 and replanting part of these. Assuming a 

 maximum mortality of 20 percent during 

 the 3 years of growth, 40,000 sponges 

 could be harvested during the fourth year. 

 Since it is possible to cut the sponges 

 from the base and still have a very good 

 product, the 40,000 living sponge bases 

 would be essentially replanted cuttings. 

 Assuming, after 3 years, the program of 

 the plantation is to plant 100,000 cuttings 

 per year, 10,000 to 15,000 of the harvested 

 sponges would have to be cut to be used 

 for replanting during this fourth year to 

 bring the total number of cuttings to the 

 desired 100,000 level. This would leave 

 between 25,000 and 30,000 sponges for 

 marketing, yielding about $15,000 at 

 present average market prices. It is quite 

 conceivable that the cultivated sponges 

 would be a quality product and bring in a 

 somewhat higher price. 



3. The same schedule of partial harvesting 

 and replanting would have to be main- 

 tained during the fourth, fifth, and sixth 

 years. 



4. During the seventh year it would be pos- 

 sible to harvest 80,000 of the original 

 100,000 planted sponges of which 5,000 

 would have to be sacrificed for cuttings. 

 A number of sponges might be deformed 

 by the proximity of plants or alcyonarians 

 growing on the sponge or the stone base. 

 These deformed sponges could be cut up 

 for seed; the loss of the 5,000 would not 

 necessarily represent an unexpected 

 heavy loss of revenue. 



The 75,000 sponges harvested yearly would 

 represent about one-quarter of the 1955 or 

 1956 yield from the entire Florida area, where 



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