NATIONAL FISHERY CONGRESS. 
233 
3. In general there has been a smaller catch per man and per vessel. Very many 
trips result in a loss to the owners or outfitters of the vessels, and it is now the 
exception for a vessel to bring in the average catch of earlier years. 
4. The catch is very noticeably made up of small sponges, those under the legal 
size constituting a too prominent proportion. 
The causes for the decrease are readily determined and are almost unanimously 
recognized by spongers and buyers. They are directly traceable to indiscriminate 
fishing, although stress is laid on natural agencies by some of those interested. 
TAKING OF SMALL SPONGES. 
This is undoubtedly the principal cause of the decrease in the supply of Florida 
sponges. While the State law, which has now been in force fifteen years, expressly 
forbids the sale of sponges less than 4 inches in diameter across the top, the law has 
never been seriously regarded by fishermen, dealers, or sheriffs, and the occasional 
spasmodic efforts made to enforce it have only added to the disrepute in which the 
statute is held. It is extremely doubtful if tlie law has resulted in the saving of a 
single undersized sponge or the slightest protection of the grounds. The attempt to 
remind the spongers of the existence of the law has usually been on the arrival of the 
fleet, when the damage has been done, and by the time vessels have returned to the 
grounds the law has been conveniently forgotten by law officers and law breakers 
alike. 
Some figures are available which illustrate the great damage done to the industry 
by the gathering of small sponges, and show how short-sighted the fishermen are in 
this respect, and emphasize the necessity for a change in the present status. 
The very small sheepswool sponges which the fisherman bring in, many of them 
only half the legal size, have little market value. When a sponge-buyer purchases a 
cargo these small sponges receive scant consideration and are often entirely discarded 
in determining the value of the lot. When undersized sponges are sold independ- 
ently it has not infrequently happened that 20 bunches or strings, each holding 25 
sponges, have brought the fishermen only $1 or $2. The same sponges if left on the 
grounds six months longer would have been worth $150 to $175. A case is cited in 
which 1,250 sheepswool sponges were sold in Key West for $5. Conservative esti- 
mates indicated that if left down six months longer these would have brought at 
least $390. 
It is a very small sponge which the average sponge fishermen will now discard, 
and yet, on the authority of reputable dealers, it may be stated every season there are 
many thousands of sponges gathered which never reach the markets, but are thrown 
away. It may be safely asserted that each year the small sponges taken from the 
Florida grounds would add $100,000, or 30 per cent, to the value of the product if 
they could be left growing for six months. 
EXCESSIVE FISHING. 
Coincident with the gathering of small sponges has been the excessive sponging 
on grounds, season after season, without any regard whatever for the preservation of 
enough stock to secure the repopulation of the beds. A sponge fisherman will rarely 
willingly or knowingly leave any sponges of value on a ground; and the entire history 
of the sponge industry shows a flagrant disregard for the preservation of the supply. 
