236 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
region may be open to unrestricted fishing one year and the Rock Island grounds the 
next. 
Whatever action is finally taken by the State in this matter, there should be a 
careful preliminary investigation by a competent board, which should inquire into 
the special conditions in the different parts of the sponge region and determine the 
boundaries of the areas to be successively brought under restrictive provisions. 
A final remedy for arresting the decrease in the sponge supply is the cultivation 
of sponges, the necessity for which depends to a large degree on the carrying out of 
the foregoing measures. 
CULTIVATION OF SPONGES FROM CUTTINGS. 
The growing of sponges from clippings may be said to have almost passed beyond 
the experimental stage, since the possibility of the procedure has been amply demon- 
strated. At the same time, the business of producing marketable sponges from clip- 
pings has not been engaged in, although there seem to be no insurmountable difficulties 
in this country at least; and the present indications are that before five years have 
elapsed private sponge-farms will have become established on parts of the Florida 
coast. 
There are various reasons why the artificial growing of sponges should receive 
attention. In the first place, sponge-culture should partly arrest the further deple- 
tion of the natural grounds by diverting the energies of some of the spongers in the 
direction of the j>ossibilities of the now barren grounds. If the cultivation of sponges 
becomes established along the many hundreds of miles of suitable coast, it will cer- 
tainly prove a profitable employment to a large number of people, either independently 
or in connection with other branches of industry. Furthermore, the increase in the 
output which must follow the successful inauguration of sponge-culture will reduce 
the dependence of the United States on foreign sponges. Finally, the State may 
with great propriety obtain a revenue from this source. 
The lines along which the planting of sponges must be conducted have been indi- 
cated in the different experiments already made, to the printed accounts of which 
those especially interested are referred. 1 No detailed statement of the methods 
employed by various experimenters is necessary for the purpose in view in the present 
paper. 
It may be stated, however, that thirty-five years ago the question of artificial 
propagation of sponges received attention in Europe and was under consideration for 
ten years; that nearly twenty years ago limited experiments were conducted at Key 
West; that in 1889, 1890, and 1891 some very interesting trials were made in Biscayne 
Bay; and that at present the matter is receiving serious attention in the vicinity of 
Key West, where planting has begun on a commercial basis. 
While the work of Mediterranean experimenters was of a more systematic and 
1 Reference is especially made to the following articles : (1) Experiments in sponge-culture at Key 
West about 1880: The Fishery Industries of the United States, sec. v, vol. 2, p. 832. Reprinted in 
Senate Document No. 100, second session, Fifty-fourth Congress, being a report of the United States 
Fish Commission on the coast fisheries of Florida. (2) Sponge-cultural experiments in the Adriatic 
Sea, 1863-1872 : Die Aufzucht des Badenschwammes aus Theilstiicken, by Dr. Emil von Marenzeller, 
Vienna, 1878. An abridged translation appears in the Fishery Industries of the United States, sec. v, 
vol. 2, pp. 833-836; the latter is also reprinted in the Senate document named. (3) Account of Sponge- 
cultural experiments in Biscayne Bay, 1889-1891, by Ralph M. Munroe. Contained in Rep. U. S. Fish 
Com. 1895, pp. 187, 188. 
