NOTES ON BISCAYNE BAY. 187 



ACCOUNT OF SPONGE-CULTURAL EXPERIMENTS IN BISCAYNE BAY. 



By Ralph M. Munroe. 



Agreeably to request made by you for a brief report on my experiments in sponge 

 culture, I am pleased to submit the following: 



Having bad my attention called to the iiossibilities of sponge culture by Mr. J. 

 Fogai'ty, of Key West, a gentleman of much experience as a buyer and packer of 

 the article, who had a few years previously successfully grown a few samjjles from 

 cuttings, I began work iu the same line in November, 1889, at Biscaj'ne Bay, a place 

 admirably adapted to such exjierimenting, far more so than any other place on the 

 coast, having a greater range of bottom, from the oozy marls of the inner lagoons to 

 the hard outer coral reef, waters of all degrees of density from the Gulf Stream to 

 fresh, and currents to suit. 



Being already well provided with a vessel, boats, sponge hooks, and water glasses, 

 tlie question of suitable material for attaching to and sinking the cuttings to the 

 bottom gave some trouble, although apparently a simple problem. Saplings of 

 white wood, which were plentiful, fairly proof against worms, and heavy enough to 

 retain their place in strong tide ways, were finally chosen. They were about 12 feet 

 in length, with a cross piece at one end to prevent rolling over. The cuttings were 

 fastened tothem-by various contrivances, wedged into holes with pegs, wires around 

 the pole, etc., but the quickest, if possibly not the best, as it afterwards turned out, 

 were short pieces of brass wire doubled and driven into the pole with a peculiar 

 grooved punch, Avhich could be done rapidly. At other stages of the experiment I 

 used bamboo stakes, long double lines of twisted wire connected by cross pieces of 

 white wood with the cuttings inserted between the strands, also flat pieces of coral 

 rock with drilled holes and wooden wedges. Galvanized iron in any form did not 

 answer, especially wire, as it quickly corroded. Most of the first plantings were lost 

 by its use, and I am also inclined to condemn brass wire on account of the possible 

 poisonous effects of the salts formed on it, although some of tlie best results were 

 obtained when it was used. 



Having prepared the sinkers and hooked up sufficient sponge for several days' 

 work, placing them iu nets hung from the side of the schooner, the ^irocess was as 

 follows : Take the poles or other sinker material iu a small boat, two kedge anchors, 

 a small long line, and the sponge iu buckets, iu which the water was changed every 

 few minutes, a cutting board and knife, the latter very thin and resharpened often, 

 owing to the calcareous matter embedded in the sponge. In this connection it lias 

 been generally understood that exposure to air and sun for even a few minutes was 

 fatal to a sponge, and at first I was very careful in this respect. Subsequently I 

 found that several hours of such exposure did not hurt them to any extent. Stag- 

 nant water, however, will kill thena in a very short time. 



llaviug reached the locality which was at first selected by the natural sponge 

 growth already on it, the two kedges were let go at either end of the long line, and 

 by hauling along this lino the plantings could be kept quite regular, aud when 

 finished were marked by range stakes set up on the adjacent dry banks. The depth 

 of water ranged from 8 feet to less than a foot at low tide, at which latter dejith 

 mnny iiue sponges are found. By the use of a water glass the plantings could be 

 easily observed at any time without disturbing them. 



