THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 465 
For purposes of comparison and to illustrate the statistical history of the 
Florida sponge fisheries, another series tables have been prepared. They embrace 
all years for which accurate returns are available. The data for 1903 to 1908, 
inclusive, are summaries of the preceding tables here first published, and for 
the years prior to 1903 are obtained from previous publications of the Bureau of 
Fisheries. 
The returns of the investments in the sponge fisheries prior to 1900 are incom- 
plete or inseparable from those in other fisheries, and the same statement applies 
to the personnel. The yield of the fisheries is known for a longer series of 
years, though the earlier returns are not so fully itemized as are those for the 
years beginning with 1900. It will be observed that all of the tables indicate a 
general shrinkage in the fishery until 1905, when the success of the experiment 
with diving apparatus administered a stimulus and largely revolutionized the 
methods. Since that time there has been an increase in the total investment, 
the number of vessels employed, the personnel of the fishery, and especially in 
the volume and value of the catch, though the latter reached its maximum, so 
far as the sheepswgol sponges are concerned, in 1906. In that year the quan- 
tity of sheepswool sponges alone far exceeded that of all kinds in any previous 
year in the history of the fishery, and the value was greater than that of the 
entire yield of the fishery in any year before or since. 
In 1907 and 1908 the production of sheepswool sponges fell between 35 and 
40 per cent, and to an even greater extent in value. This retrogression in the 
production of the highest grade of sponges was due to legal restrictions placed 
on diving, which became operative in 1907. 
Accompanying this decrease there has been an enormous increase in the pro- 
duction of the cheaper sponges, especially yellow and grass, and the entrance 
of the previously neglected wire sponge into the markets as a valuable product. 
The production of yellow sponges in 1908 was about fourfold that of 1905, and 
about 50 per cent more grass sponges were put on the market, while 8,494 
pounds of wire sponges, valued at $1,385, were marketed in 1908, and the 
product of 1909 will much exceed this in quantity, with a value relatively much 
greater than in 1908. 
Diving apparatus has undergone a rapid increase, but it is probable that 
its maximum has now been nearly reached, and its future development will be 
slower. ‘There was a steady decrease in the number of vessels and men employed 
in the hook fishery between 1900 and 1905, and since that year the decrease has 
been rapid. Between 1900 and 1908 the number of vessels and men employed 
in hooking each fell about 54 per cent, and the product decreased about 45 per 
cent. At the present time there are indications of an increase in this method 
of sponging, certain of the diving vessels manned by Greeks outfitting with 
hooks and dingeys for work during the summer, when diving is prohibited. 
B. B. F. 1908—30 
