There are several disadvantages to growing commercial sponges. The first is the long growing time. This is easily solved by simply planting a certain number of cuttings each year and establishing a planting/harvesting cycle. Once the cycle is established a farmer will be harvesting and exporting on a regular basis. It will just take time to establish this cycle. The only real potential problem which may be encountered during this long growing period is the possibility that some disease may appear during this time, as noted below. If this were to happen the potential impact would be reduced by quickly harvesting the effected sponges as well as those in the immediate area. This should reduce or prevent the spread of any disease to unaffected sponges.
As noted above, another potential problem is the possibility of disease. The wild sponges located off the Florida Coast have suffered from a “blight” only twice in the 90 to 100 years. Recent information received indicates that the same may be now happening for the first time, to some of the commercial sponge stocks located in the Mediterranean. While this problem has only occurred two or three times over the past 100 years, there is always the possibility that some organism may attack a growing sponge and a close watch would have to be maintained for any sponges being cultured.
The biggest problem facing the establishment of a commercial sponge industry in Pohnpei or the FSM, is that the known wild stocks of commercial sponges is not large enough to support commercial exploitation nor to provide sponge cuttings for more than one or two commercial farms. To develop a liable sponge industry within Pohnpei or the FSM it will be necessary to establish a nursery farm which then can be used to train potential farmers and to provide trainees with the cuttings needed to start setting up their own private operations. Before this nursery farm can be established a survey of wild commercial sponge stocks, as well as potential sponge farming sites must be conducted to determine their present status. The following survey addresses this need for Pohnpei State.
