506 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
body if enforced on all without prejudice or favor. The difficulty now is that 
each man feels that the law will be broken with impunity by some of his com- 
petitors and that he may as well get his share of such profits as may accrue from 
disregard of the regulations. 
The amendment and enforcement of the law as suggested will not restore the 
depleted beds to their pristine productiveness nor prevent the partial depletion 
of beds at present more or less unimpaired, but it will prevent the ultimate com- 
mercial extinction of the sponges and will insure for all years to come at least a 
partial crop from all beds now known or which may be hereafter discovered. 
As to the foregoing there can be no room for discussion among fair-minded and 
disinterested persons, but in regard to close seasons the various suggestions that 
have been made from time to time are open to more or less difference of opinion. 
The following propositions all have their advocates: (1) The closure of all beds 
during the spawning season, (2) the closure of all beds for a part of each year 
irrespective of the spawning season, and (3) the alternating or rotative closure 
of some of the beds for’a longer period while all other grounds are open to more 
or less unrestricted fishing. 
The first suggestion appears to me to be futile and ineffective. In the first 
place a difficulty presents itself from the circumstance that the sponge, at least 
in the warmer waters, spawns more or less generally throughout the year, though 
the greater number of embryos are emitted during spring and early summer. 
This, however, would be a minor consideration if much were to be gained, for 
the period selected for closure could be made to correspond with the time of 
maximum discharge of young, but nothing more would be accomplished than 
by closing the beds for an equal period at any other season of the year. Whether 
a breeding sponge is taken before or during the spawning season the loss is the 
same so far as its potential powers of reproduction are concerned. 
The close season embracing a part of each year, similar to that established 
for the scaphander in Florida from May 1 to October 1, or the Tunisian regula- 
tions of like import, is of value chiefly in restricting the catch and leaving a 
larger number of sponges on the beds. If by an increase in the intensity of the 
fishery as many sponges are taken in the shorter period as would otherwise be 
caught in the entire year, practically nothing is gained, for the duration of 
closure is too short to permit the protected sponges to increase very materially 
in size and, as stated above, the protection of spawning as distinguished from 
nonspawning mature individuals is immaterial. Where, as in Florida, the 
open period is made to coincide with the season under which the fishery is 
most subject to difficulty and interruption, the regulation is made more effective 
in protecting the beds by a reduction in the profitableness of the operations 
and the consequent discouragement of increases in apparatus, personnel, and 
intensity of the fishery. 
