FISHERY RESOURCES OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



63 



or better still, kept under water and cut with a very sharp knife into 

 cubes of about 5 centimeters, care being taken to keep on as much of 

 the thin, black skin as possible and not to squeeze the animal. These 

 pieces are then placed on a thick, copper wire, about 4 centimeters apart, 

 the wire being fastened to stakes at each end and about 15 centimeters 

 above the bottom. (Fig. 4.) It is quite possible that rattan would do 



Fig. 4. 



as well as copper wire ; bamboo has been used with fair results. Within 

 a day or two the sponges become attached to the wire and grow into fine, 

 round organisms which have a much better shape than those growing 

 naturally. These slips planted in Florida waters reached a marketable 

 size in less than two years. The time required for them to grow in the 

 Philippines is not known. 



Sponges should always be propagated in water in which they grow 

 well naturally and at about their normal depth. It is probable that 

 improved varieties can be cultivated by uniting cuttings of superior 

 sponges, and some of the best grade of European sponges might even be 

 introduced with advantage. 



It is my firm conviction that by care and work, not only in growing 

 sponges, but by opening new beds, and fishing in deeper waters, a sponge 

 industry amounting to several hundred thousand pesos per year may be 

 built up in the Philippines. 



Regulations governing the gathering of sponges in the waters of the 

 iloro Province were passed in June, 1908, and copies of these regulations 

 may be obtained from the Secretary of the Moro Province at Zamboanga. 



LITERATURE. 



The following is a very incomplete list of literature dealing with 

 sponges, chiefly of this or related regions : 



Caeter. 



Descriptions of Sponges from the Neighborhood of Port Philip Heads, South 



Australia, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (1885), V, 16, 277, 347; (1886), V, 



17, 40, 112, 431, 502; (1886), V, 18, 34, 126. 

 Contributions to our knowledge of the Spongida, lUd. (1883), V, 11, 344; 



(1879) V, 3, 343; (1875), IV, 16, 126, 177; (1882), V, 9, 266, 346; 



(1869), IV, 3, 15; (1873), IV, 12, 17; (1872), IV, 9, 82; (1883), V, 



12, 308; (1879), V, 3, 284; (1876), IV, 18, 226, 307, 388, 458. 



