542 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
of the diving apparatus. This would cost neither money nor labor, and under 
it the sponges would propagate abundantly, while hundreds of lives would be 
saved or benefited thereby. 
APPEAL TO THE INTERNATIONAL FISHERY CONGRESS. 
My work in the cause of the sponge divers at first consisted of efforts to 
arouse public interest in their behalf, by written communications and petitions, 
by publications in the press, and by lectures on the subject. I at length, however, 
resorted to direct appeal to the authorities of the different countries concerned, 
presenting my cause in person. I have likewise organized societies or enlisted 
the efforts of existing organizations wherever possible, and have brought the © 
matter before various official and unofficial bodies. As recounted in the pre- 
ceding pages, all of the sponge-bearing countries of the Mediterranean, and also 
the United States of America, have passed prohibitory or restrictive laws. For 
the most part, however, the laws have been ineffective, by reason of intrigues 
on the part of advocates of the scaphander and indifference on the part of the 
governments. The various international congresses before whom the question 
has been brought, while in one or two instances slow to act, have for the most 
part given prompt and full indorsement of my plea. I am now addressing the 
International Life-Saving Congress at Frankfort on the Main, and at the same 
time making a fervent appeal to the International Fishery Congress at Wash- 
ington. The measures for which I solicit the support of these congresses are 
the following: 
(1) Prohibition of the diving apparatus and protection of the three good 
modes of fishing brought down from antiquity. 
(2) Inauguration of an international supervision of the execution of inter- 
national measures against the illegal sponge fishing with diving apparatus in 
neutral waters where the national supervision is not sufficient. 
(3) Establishment of life and accident insurance as well as of savings 
banks for the sponge fishermen. 
(4) Care of the surviving victims of the diving apparatus. 
(5) Levying of dues for the permission to take sponges, and the utilization 
of part of this revenue in behalf of the sponge fishermen. 
(6) Rigid supervision of the execution of these measures on land and on 
water. 
Since parts of this programme have already become law in various inter- 
ested countries and have operated with the best of success, there is reason to 
hope that they will soon meet with recognition and execution in countries 
where little has as yet been done for the suffering sponge fishermen. 
The question of maritime jurisdiction is a further problem of importance 
in the sponge fisheries. Greece, Turkey, Tunis, the United States, and lately 
