510 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
fisheries already established, however desirable it may be from the standpoint 
of the consumer. Exhausted or partly exhausted fisheries must suffer if brought 
into competition with those whose productiveness is unimpaired and whose 
product may be put on the market at a lower price. Those countries which 
have with forethought provided for the contingencies of the future are those 
whose fisheries will be best fitted to survive competition, or, should that not 
come, be in a position to reap the greatest profit from the increased demand 
for their product. 
To secure to the people of Florida the conservation of the natural beds, 
for the maintenance of the fisheries already established, to regulate those which 
may be introduced in the future, and to provide for an increase in the sponge 
supply to meet the growing demands of civilization, changes in the federal and 
state statutes are suggested to meet the following requirements in addition or 
amendment to those already provided for: 
1. The minimum size of sponges allowed to be taken, landed, or sold should 
be increased from 4 inches to 5 inches in their maximum diameter. This would 
prevent the present wasteful destruction of sponges commercially almost worth- 
less, would conserve the beds, ana after one year would increase the income of 
the fishermen without materially decreasing it in the meantime. 
2. In addition to the restrictions now in force, the use of the scaphander 
should be prohibited in water deeper than 20 fathoms. ‘This is intended pri- 
marily as a hygienic measure, to protect the divers from the evil results attend- 
ing work in deep water, but it will also indirectly protect the workable beds by 
maintaining outside of them a possible reserve of spawning sponges to supply 
them with young. 
3. Gangavas, dredges, trawls, and similar instruments for scraping the 
bottom should be prohibited in depths of less than 30 fathoms. This regulation, 
while not required by any present development of the fishery, will prevent the 
sudden unregulated development of a method which would undoubtedly be 
destructive to the inshore grounds. 
4. State and federal laws should be enacted for the encouragement of 
sponge culture in both territorial and extraterritorial waters, securing to private 
individuals or corporations the sole use, under proper restrictions, of suitable 
areas of the bottom for the purpose of raising sponges by artificial means. In 
case of further depletion of the natural beds, or with the growth of demand and 
the failure to discover new and more productive grounds, sponge culture offers 
the only possible means of prevention of a practical sponge famine. With the 
development of sponge fields in other parts of the world which would be serious 
competitors with the depleted beds of Florida, the practice of an economic 
system of sponge culture is the only means which would prevent the extermina- 
tion of the lucrative sponge business of the state. 
