Commercial sponge aquaculture was attempted off the southern United States in the early 1900's but met with strong resistance by local fishermen. There was much vandalism (Sea Secrets, 1983). Sponge farmers learned there are no natural predators that can damage the sponges but they also learned that sponge farms are sometimes subject to a blight that will kill sponges planted very close together. The commercial culturing of sponges was also carried out at Andros Island, Bahamas, “… for the past 20 years or so”. per a 1957 report (Storr, 1957).
As noted above, within Pohnpei State the Japanese experimented with growing sponges just before the war. They planted sponges on vertical lines and reportedly had some success with culturing them.
Commercial sponges are slow growing animals. The 1948 paper by A. R. Cahn cited a minimum of one and a half to two years for a cut sponge planted in Palau to reach a minimum commercial size, “…as large as a fist.” (Cahn, 1948). Other sources have indicated a growth period of three to four years to first harvest (Sea Secrets, 1983 and Stevely, 1985). The author, Mr. Richard Croft, has been attempting to grow commercial sponges on lines suspended from the bottom since 1985 and at the time of this report, has more than 2,000 commercial sponges growing on these lines. The work done by Mr. Croft in Pohnpei indicates a growth period of two to three years. While commercial sponges are rather slow growing they do show promise for being cultured and exported to world markets.
