450 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
returns will illustrate the average catches during the months of December and 
the early part of January: 
Diving boat Amphitrite, out two months: 
172 bunches sheepswool, selling for___-_-----__- wd GN Sd ee I i ee $1, 292.05 
60 bunches small sheepswool, selling for____-____- : cine. oid A 2 sh eee eee 116.00 
253 bunches yellow, selling for___-_.__---_------ Se Pe eee 289. 50 
84. bunches'grass, selling*for 2-2-2 n= Se ee eee ea 47.00 
569 bunches:all Kinds; ‘selling for — 2. 235 so an ee eee ee ee 1, 744.55 
Diving boat Harikila, out two months: 
160 bunches sheepswool, selling for_____-------------- Es ee te Se he $1, 353.00 
59 bunches small sheepswool, selling for___---___. _- pe ate ae ca eg oe ee ee 117.18 
205 bunches yellow, selling for____..-.------_- SS Pea on oe hd ee 259.00 
7o bunches small yellow, selling for________. meee tes oe ee ere 34. 00 
94 bunches grass, selling for _-_-_------- 2 Se ae acter eeu Bee 55-00 
588 bunches all kinds, selling for _-___._.____-- be ae sets, fe, beh of 1, 818. 18 
Schooner Edna Louise, with two diving boats, out seventeen days: 
250 bunches sheepswool} selling for =e) ee ee eee See ce ee ee ee $1, 398. 00 
75 butiches small sheepswool, selling: forse. = ee a ee ee eee ee ee 101. 00 
444" bunches‘yellow, ‘bid: refused) ope see ae ee ee ee ee Roe 248. 00 
115 bunches! wire, bid) refused. -22_--22--=- 2-2-2 Leet Dee se ees, a See ee 83.00 
884 ‘bunehes: all kinds; bid) 22_ <2. 22502 402 35 se a a ee ee eee 1, 830. 00 
These figures give an average per boat day of about 13 bunches of sponges 
of all kinds, selling for $35. 
As compared with hooking, diving requires a more expensive equipment. 
The smaller vessels of the old fleet are not suitable for living boats, for the crews 
are necessarily large and require the same accommodations needed for an equal 
number of hookers, especially as the sponges are now cured on the vessels. In 
addition, the diving or machine boat, with its pumps, suits, and gear, is much 
more costly than the sponge hooks, glasses, and five or six dingeys which 
constitute the secondary equipment of the hooker. The expense of operation 
and maintenance is also greater, and to pay expenses the yield per man must be 
considerably larger. 
To compensate for this, diving has several advantages: It can be carried on 
in rougher and more turbid water and at greater depths, and, moreover, the diver 
can get sponges inaccessible to the hooker working on the same beds. In 
practice, too, the diving crews can be kept more persistently at their work, and 
the Greeks are less prone to lose time running inshore at night unless under 
stress of weather. When diving was first introduced on the Florida coast it 
was claimed that but rarely would the sea be so turbulent as to stop operations. 
Experience, especially that of the last season, has shown that this fishery also is 
more or less at the mercy of the weather and that while it can be prosecuted 
