Prior to World War II the .i.Japanese experimented with culturing commercial sponges in Pohnpei, Truk, Palau and the Marshall Islands (Smith, 1947). The work they were doing with the sponges were left to their own resources. The commercial sponges in Pohnpei's lagoon which were used in these experiments have since spread to many different locations within the lagoon and have been thriving since.
In 1986, the FSM Government started to investigate the possible potential for sponge farming and contacted many outside agencies for identification and the reports received stated the samples sent were Spongia officianalis which is the same or similar to species of commercial sponge marketed elsewhere. Further information received from other agencies indicates the current demand for commercial sponges is far greater than the supply (one source stated the demand was five times the supply) and information received from at least one commercial buyer has verified this. During late 1986, a commercial buyer stopped off on Pohnpei and met with various National and State personnel including Mr. Mike Gawel, FSM Marine Resources Division, Mr. Flinn Curren, Pohnpei State Marine Resources Division, Mr. Dan Perrin, Pohnpei State Department of Conservation and Resource Surveillance and Mr. Richard Croft, Pohnpei State Economic Development Authority. He viewed a small cleaned sample of the commercial sponge found here, supplied by Mr. Croft and stated it was called a “wool sponge” by the industry. A paper discussing the Florida sponge industry shows the value for wool sponges climbing from around $9.00 per pound in the late 1950's to more than $20.00 per pound in 1977 (Stevely, 1978).
Based upon the information received to date it appears that if commercial sponges can be produced here, there is a good market for them and as the FSM needs to develop its exports, growing commercial sponges may have good potential. In addition, depending on the environmental conditions, this is one project which may be appropriate to outer island development.
