COMMERCIAL SPONGES 735 



servation measure. The law is, however, not too strictly enforced, and incidents 

 of its violation (e.g., selling of undersized sponges) are frequent. 



Statistics 



The statistics of the world's sponge production cannot be stated with accuracy. 

 Those of the United States, the Bahama Islands, and Cuba can be given with 

 considerable exactness, but the fishery of the Mediterranean, the most important 

 of all, is conducted by so many nationalities, overlapping in their fields of activi- 

 ties and in their markets, that it is difficult if not impossible to detect omissions 

 and duplications in the published data. Sometimes it is evident that the same 

 sponges are reported in part both for the country under whose jurisdiction the 

 beds are lodged and by that whose nationals conducted the fishery. 



Table 161 represents the best estimate that can be made at present on the basis 

 of the available data. The total figure is slightly underestimated, for the produc- 

 tion figures are not available for the Philippines, Japan, and the Far Eastern 

 Area (the Marshall and Caroline Islands). 



Table 161. World Production of Sponges. 

 In pounds 



1938 1947 



(country ^^^ omitted 000 omitted 



United States 610 160 



Cuba 440 100 



Bahamas 670 40 



Other Caribbean 30 



Total Mediterranean 700 560 



Total world 2,450 860 



1 Included in "Other Mediterranean." 



Source: U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior, and Foreign 

 Service, Department of State. 



Living Sponge 



The limits imposed on the length of this chapter will not permit more than a 

 cursory account of the structure and life history of these interesting animals. 



The living sponge, fresh from the sea, has no resemblance to the sponge of 

 the markets. It is a solid, rather slimy-feeling fleshy body, varying in color from 

 light greyish yellow through a considerable range of browns to black; in shape it 

 varies with the species, age, and habitat. In general appearance and consistency 



