Sponge harvesting was done in
some interesting ways during the early days. First there
was the use of long poles with iron hooks on the ends; we
call these poles, ‘Grains’. Picture
this…
A fisherman would use a dingy, skull (or row) this little
boat out to the sponge bed away from the mother ship, then
looking through a “water glass” over the side
of the dingy, since they had no goggles or
snorkels…and no, this was not a 8oz drinking glass,
this ‘water glass’ or “looking
glass’ was made usually out of wood and about the
size of your average mopping bucket, and a round piece of
glass fitted in the bottom which made things look big on
the seafloor.
He’d then select all the sponges he wished, but problem came when he pulled the sponges up from its resting place… he pulled up roots and all! Hence there was no reason for him to go back to that area again looking for new sponges because the ‘mother’ sponge was totally uprooted and no more future growth was possible.
Today however, the fishermen have gotten more environmentally savvy in that they now use a very sharp knife and cut them from their base leaving about ¼ inch or 6.4mm of sponge material left, roots in tack to ensure future growth and development which would further sustain the resurgence of this viable industry.
Next, we are contemplating “Sponge Farming”! This would definitely have an impact and be a boost to the Sponge industry because then we would be able to nature these lovely sea beauties to maturity with some TLC. Please stay tuned for these developments as progress in this, becomes available.