In the early 1970s, Bahamians sang a calypso-tinged folk tune called “Sponger Money Never Done, Sponger Money is a lot of Fun.” The song celebrated a trade that had anchored island economies for generations — men plying the shallow banks in small sloops, bringing up the soft, porous skeletons of marine animals that ended up as bath sponges in Europe and North America. Half a century later, that same trade had shrunk to a fraction of its former value, its practitioners aging out, its supply chain fractured. But in the past decade, a quiet experiment on the island of Andros has begun reversing the tide. This article traces the rise, collapse, and tentative revival of Bahamian sea sponge harvesting — and what it reveals about the precarious economics of small-island maritime trades.
Bahamian sponge exports fell to $540,000 by 2011, down from over $1 million just a few years earlier — a decline driven not by resource depletion alone but by a broken supply chain that left harvesters with little leverage.
Sea sponge harvesting in the Bahamas is not a single practice but a shifting web of local traditions, market pressures, and ecological constraints. The trade contracted sharply in the late 20th century but is now being rebuilt community by community — most visibly on Andros — through training programs that aim to keep control in harvesters’ hands. The revival is real but uneven, and it faces headwinds from climate change, tourism development, and generational disinterest.
Quick reference: The three phases of Bahamian sponge harvesting
Sponging in the Bahamas has moved through distinct eras, each with its own geography, economics, and challenges. The table below sketches the broad strokes.
| Period | Primary region | Export value (approximate) | Key feature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Golden Age (late 1800s – 1930s) | Throughout the archipelago, especially Andros, Abaco, Long Island | Not reliably recorded, but dominant export | Small-sloop fleet, family-based harvesting, direct sales to Nassau exporters |
| Decline (1960s – early 2000s) | Andros retains some activity; other islands drop out | Fell below $1M by 2000s | Synthetic sponge competition, aging fleet, fragmented supply chain |
| Revival (2016 – present) | Mangrove Cay, Andros (pilot); expanding to Long Island, Abaco | $540,000 (2011); rising since training began | IDB Lab–BAIC training, women entering industry, direct export relationships |
Note: Export values before the mid-20th century are difficult to pin down because records were kept inconsistently across island settlements. The figures shown reflect the best available data from the Bahamas Agricultural Industrial Corporation and IDB Lab project documents.
The golden age: When sponges built the islands
For much of the 19th and early 20th centuries, sponges were the backbone of the Bahamian export economy, alongside salt and later pineapples. The industry peaked before synthetic alternatives arrived in the 1950s. Harvesters worked the shallow banks in small sailing vessels called sponge schooners, using long-handled rakes or — in deeper water — free-diving to tear clusters of sponges from the seafloor. The catch was cleaned, dried, and graded in settlements like Mangrove Cay on Andros, which sat adjacent to some of the richest sponge beds in the Caribbean.
The work was dangerous and seasonal. Spongers spent weeks at sea, sleeping on deck and hauling up their catch by hand. A. Derek Catalano, a Bahamian writer and historian, notes in his blog Native Stew that the industry once supported entire communities on Andros, Long Island, and Abaco — not just the harvesters but also the women who cleaned and graded the sponges onshore.
The crash: Why a trade collapsed
The decline of Bahamian sponge harvesting is not a simple story of overfishing. While overharvesting played a role in some beds, the bigger blow came from synthetic sponges, which entered global markets in the 1950s and 60s. Cheaper, more consistent, and free of the organic smell of natural sponge, synthetics displaced natural sponge in most household and industrial uses. By the 1970s, the folk song “Sponger Money Never Done” had become a nostalgic relic rather than a working anthem.
But the collapse was also structural. Bahamian harvesters traditionally sold their catch at low prices to Nassau-based exporters, who processed and resold the sponges at much higher margins. Local fishermen had no direct relationship with foreign buyers, no access to processing facilities, and no marketing know-how. As the market shrank, the remaining harvesters found themselves squeezed between falling prices and rising costs for fuel and boat maintenance. Many simply stopped.
A common outsider assumption is that sponge harvesting is inherently destructive to reef ecosystems. In reality, responsible harvesting — cutting sponges above the base so they regenerate — can be sustainable. The damage in the Bahamas came less from the act of harvesting itself than from unregulated competition during boom years and the subsequent abandonment of managed beds.
Andros: A laboratory for revival
In 2016, the IDB Lab — the innovation laboratory of the Inter-American Development Bank — approved a project called “Revitalization of the Sponging Industry” in partnership with the Bahamas Agricultural Industrial Corporation (BAIC). The pilot focused on Little Harbour and Mangrove Cay on Andros, a community of roughly 900 people situated next to a 1.5-million-acre national marine park and the world’s third-largest barrier reef.
The project did not simply hand out boats or gear. It trained harvesters in sustainable cutting techniques, business planning, and customer development — essentially teaching fishermen to become entrepreneurs. Mikia Carter, IDB Lab Specialist for The Bahamas, told the IDB that harvesters are “now able to increase their incomes and quality of their livelihoods through exporting sponges internationally.” Maliancha Major, assistant secretary of the Bahamas Commercial Sponge Association (BCSA), reported a “major improvement in the harvest since the training and a better opportunity for fishermen to sell their sponges.”
The results have been tangible. Half of the training participants are women — a significant shift in a historically male-dominated trade. And the model is spreading. Five other Family Islands are now organizing their own sponging associations, and harvesters on Long Island and Abaco have formally requested similar training. Claudine Green, the former project coordinator, noted that “many who sponge or want to get into sponging also seemed very interested in establishing a local sponging association.”
If you visit Andros and want to see sponge processing or speak with harvesters, your best entry point is the Bahamas Commercial Sponge Association (BCSA). Ask in Mangrove Cay or contact the BAIC office in Nassau. Avoid approaching working sponge boats uninvited — the harvesters operate on tight schedules and are cautious about outsiders disturbing their beds.
More than a commodity: Sponges in Bahamian life
Sponges have never been purely economic objects in the Bahamas. The folk song from the 1970s is just one example of how deeply the trade wove into island identity. Sponge money paid for boats, houses, and school fees; sponge knowledge was passed from father to son. The revival on Andros is as much about restoring a sense of craft and self-determination as it is about income. Prospective entrepreneurs are now preparing to enter the industry not just as harvesters but as marketers, sales consultants, and value-added processors — roles that barely existed a decade ago.
Still, the recovery is not guaranteed. Climate change threatens the shallow sponge beds through warming waters and stronger storms. Tourism development on the Family Islands creates competing pressures for labor and coastal access. And the folk song — however fondly remembered — belongs to a generation that is aging out. Whether younger Bahamians will take up the rake and the dive mask remains an open question.
Context and comparison: Sponge harvesting across the Caribbean
The Bahamas was never the only Caribbean sponge producer, but its story is distinctive. The table below compares Bahamian sponging with two other regional traditions.
| Region | Peak period | Primary species | Market orientation | Current status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bahamas (Andros, Abaco, Long Island) | Late 1800s – 1930s; revival 2016–present | Hippospongia lachne (sheep’s wool sponge), Spongia officinalis | Export to North America and Europe | Reviving via IDB Lab training; still small scale |
| Florida Keys (USA) | 1870s – 1910s | Hippospongia gossypina (grass sponge) | Domestic US market | Commercial fishery largely closed since 1990s due to overharvesting and disease |
| Mediterranean (Greece, Tunisia) | Ancient through mid-20th century | Spongia officinalis, Spongia agaricina | Luxury bath and surgical sponges | Small-scale, highly regulated; some areas depleted by disease and trawling |
A key difference: Bahamian spongers have historically worked from small sailing or motor vessels in shallow banks, while Mediterranean spongers often used deep-water techniques including hard-hat diving. The Bahamian revival is notable for its emphasis on supply-chain restructuring rather than just boosting catch volumes.
It is tempting to compare the Bahamian sponge revival to Caribbean rum or coffee revivals, but sponges are biologically different. A sponge bed takes years to regenerate after cutting, and overharvesting can collapse a local population for decades. The Andros training program emphasizes leaving the base of each sponge intact — a practice that requires discipline and long-term thinking that not all harvesters have historically embraced.
- The Bahamian sponge industry collapsed not just because of synthetic competition but because harvesters had no control over processing or marketing.
- The Andros revival project trained 200 direct beneficiaries and is expanding to five other islands, with women now entering the trade in significant numbers.
- Sponge harvesting is not inherently destructive, but sustainability depends on cutting technique, bed rotation, and community-level management — all of which the IDB Lab training addresses.
- The revival is still fragile: climate change, tourism competition, and generational turnover could stall or reverse the gains made since 2016.
Questions readers ask about Bahamian sponge harvesting
Is sponge harvesting legal in the Bahamas?
Yes, but it is regulated. Harvesters must hold a commercial fishing license and follow rules about minimum sponge size, cutting technique, and seasonal closures. The Bahamas Commercial Sponge Association works with BAIC to monitor compliance.
Can I buy a Bahamian sponge as a souvenir?
Yes, but quality varies. Sponges from Andros and Long Island are generally the best. Look for sponges sold directly by harvesters or through the BCSA — Nassau souvenir shops often carry lower-grade imports mislabeled as Bahamian.
Why did the sponge industry decline so quickly?
The main causes were synthetic sponge competition, a broken supply chain that kept harvesters poor, and the gradual loss of knowledge as older spongers retired. Overharvesting in some areas also reduced yields.
Is the revival on Andros sustainable?
The training emphasizes sustainable cutting and business practices, but the long-term outlook depends on stable markets, healthy reefs, and the ability to attract young harvesters. The project closed in 2020, and ongoing support from BAIC and BCSA will be critical.
What species of sponge are harvested in the Bahamas?
The most commercially valuable is the sheep’s wool sponge (Hippospongia lachne), along with the hard-head sponge (Spongia officinalis) and the grass sponge (Hippospongia gossypina). Each has a different texture and absorbency, used for different applications from bathing to painting.
The reef and the rake: What the sponge revival reveals
The story of Bahamian sea sponge harvesting is not a simple arc from boom to bust to tentative rebirth. It is a story about who controls a resource, who profits from it, and whether the people who do the hardest work — the divers and cutters — can ever capture enough value to make the trade worth passing on. The Andros experiment suggests that they can, but only when training, infrastructure, and market access are rebuilt together. The folk song may never again be as widely sung, but the sponges are coming back. Whether the communities that once depended on them can hold on to that revival is a question still being answered by the people swinging the rakes. For a deeper look at how Family Islands maintain their distinct economic identities, see our piece on why the Family Islands still keep their own distinct identities.
Sources and further reading
Catalano, A. Derek. “The Historic Sponge Industry of The Bahamas.” Native Stew, 2025. 🔗
Inter-American Development Bank. “Revitalizing a Key Industry in the Bahamas.” IDB Lab, n.d. 🔗
Inter-American Development Bank. “Project BH-M1013: Revitalization of the Sponging Industry.” IDB Project Portal, archived. 🔗
Related reading on IslandHopperGuides
Bahamian Boat Building: A Unique Art Form of the Islands — explores another maritime craft that has struggled to survive economic change.
The Loyalists’ Impact: How History Shaped Modern Bahamian Society — traces the deeper economic history that shaped island trade patterns.
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