in less than 10 feet are often deformed by their 

 close proximity to other bottom-growing forms 

 or have algal plants, bryozoans, or other ani- 

 mals growing on the surface. In addition the 

 texture of the sponge fibers is more open and 

 the oscules larger. 



In the middle zone no glove or grass sponges 

 are to be found. Considerable quantities of 

 yellow sponges were formerly found in the 

 middle zone along with wool and wire sponges. 

 Now majority of the yellow sponges appear 

 in shallow water. In the middle zone the best 

 areas for wool sponges wasformerly inthe 60- 

 to 80- foot depths. The wire sponge is nor- 

 mally not found in the shallow water but 

 occurs in water of 40 feet or more. Wool 

 sponges in the middle zone are usually slightly 

 taller with a ratioof diameter to height of 1 : 1 

 or greater. The texture is also fine, and the 

 shape well rounded, so that sponges from this 

 depth or greater have always brought a good 

 price. 



In the deep water the best production was 

 found at the 85-foot and 100- to 110-foot depths. 

 The importance of this zone, as a sponge pro- 

 ducer before the disease of 1938, can be esti- 

 mated from reportsof the daily take of sponges. 

 It is said that up to one thousand pieces of wool 

 sponges were taken per day of effort. Five 

 divers were used in rotation in this depth, each 

 diver remaining only about 15 minutes on the 

 bottom. The quantity and size of the sponges 

 made such methods profitable. Deep water pro- 

 duced the best grade of sponges, with an esti- 

 mated 12 to 18 inches average diameter, some 

 considerably larger. The sponges were wider 

 near the top than at the bottom, and the esti- 

 mated ratio of diameter to height would have 

 been 3:4 or 3:5 or greater. In deep water 

 large 3-foot wire sponges were also seen in 

 quantity but never taken because of their very 

 low value. 



DISEASE, PARASITES, AND 

 EPIZOICS 



The 1938-39 Sponge Disease 



Some of the earliest reports of sponge losses 

 are recorded by Rathbun (1887), who lists 

 heavy losses during the years 1844, 1854, 1878, 



and 1890. At that time the most heavily worked 

 beds were those in the Florida Keys and Florida 

 Bay areas. It is interesting that these years of 

 sponge mortality coincide with heavy outbreaks 

 of red tide, caused by GymreoAnmm brevis (Fein- 

 stein, 1956). Rathbun (1887) refers to poisonous 

 colored waters about the reefs and in Florida 

 Bay with sponge losses occurring at the same 

 time. 



Brice (1898) describes heavy losses of 

 sponges in the Knight Key to Cape Sable area 

 when the sponges "rotted internally" and died 

 in large numbers. F. G. Walton Smith (1941) 

 described similar mortalities caused by a 

 fungus in British Honduras, the Bahamas, and 

 throughout the Gulf in 1938-39. The fungus was 

 tentatively identified by Galtsoff (1942) as 

 Spongiophaga communis. Carter (1878) first olv 

 served a fungus parasite on sponges. If the 

 disease described by Brice is the same as 

 that found in 1938-39, occurrences of this 

 fungal disease are very rare indeed. Occur- 

 rences of "poisoned waters "and fungal disease 

 were undoubtedly made possible by special 

 combination of oceanic conditions that led to 

 sudden blooms of the causative planktonic and 

 fungal organisms. It has been difficult to obtain 

 any knowledge of this fungal sponge disease 

 since it was impossible to culture the fungus 

 in the laboratory at the time of the occurrence. 

 Spongiophaga communis is the only true sponge 

 disease organism which has been adequately 

 described and illustrated. This was done by 

 F. G. Walton Smith in 1941. The disease first 

 attacked the interior portion of the sponge; here 

 the organisms are found in greatest abundance 

 in the narrow zone between the healthy living 

 tissue and the dead area. The hyphae appeared 

 in groups as a number of short colorless un- 

 branched filaments between 0.001 and 0.002 

 mm, in diameter. Only one end of each fila- 

 ment was attached to the sponge tissue (fig. 16). 

 As the disease progressed, a greater and 

 greater portion of the central mass of the 

 sponge was affected. The outer skin was finally 

 pierced, and in a short time the entire sponge 

 rotted away. The sponge fishermen described 

 the hooking of a heavily diseased sponge by 

 saying that the "sponge disappeared in a cloud 

 of dust." 



In the 1938-39 occurrence of the disease in 

 British Honduras, the sponge species were 



47 



