504. BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
In Florida, the Bahamas, and Cuba, while the matter of revenue has been 
by no means overlooked, more consideration has been given to questions of 
conservation of the fisheries, the measures adopted being the prohibition or 
restriction of the use of supposedly destructive forms of apparatus, the establish- 
ment of close seasons, and a minimum size of sponges which it is permissible to 
take. 
In the Bahamas, Cuba, and the territorial waters of Florida both the 
scaphander and the dredge are absolutely prohibited, Florida also including in : 
the interdiction all methods of diving, either with or without apparatus. In 
Cuba the sponge beds are all in territorial waters, and as the Bahama govern- 
ment without challenge assumes jurisdiction over the entire area of the banks, 
neither of these countries has much difficulty in making the legislation effective. 
In Florida, however, a difficulty confronts those interested in the conservation 
of the industry. 
On the Bay grounds in the Gulf of Mexico practically the entire sponge- 
bearing bottom is outside of territorial jurisdiction, beyond the 3-mile limit, and 
therefore in neutral waters not subject to direct regulation of either state or 
national government. So far as this region is concerned, therefore, the laws of 
Florida are from the nature of the case inoperative, and to obviate the difficulty 
the Congress of the United States has recently enacted laws prohibiting the 
landing of sponges taken by diving between May 1 and October 1, those taken 
by diving at any time in water less than 50 feet in depth, and all sponges of less 
than 4 inches in their largest diameter taken by whatever means. 
The effect of the federal laws, taken in conjunction with those of the state, is, 
therefore, to prohibit the landing or sale of sponges having a maximum diameter 
of less than 4 inches; to prohibit naked or skin diving and the use of the scap- 
hander by American vessels fishing for the American market in depths less than 
50 feet, and in any depth during the seven months from May 1 to October 1; and 
to prohibit the use of dredges on the Bay grounds within 3 miles of shore, where 
there are no sponges, while permitting their use outside of that limit, where the 
sponges actually exist. No legal restriction is imposed on hooking excepting 
that applying to the minimum size of sponges which may be caught, landed, or 
offered for sale. There is no prohibition, nor from the nature of the case does 
such prohibition appear possible, against either American or foreign vessels 
using the scaphander at any time anywhere outside of the 3-mile limit, provided 
that the product of such operations be not landed in an American port except 
by regular entry and payment of duty as a foreign product. 
On the Key grounds these difficulties are not encountered. The waters are 
shoal. The sponge beds are within territorial limits and under state control, 
and the federal statutes therefore do not apply and are not necessary. 
