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| Everything about the sea sponge |
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Everything about the sea sponge
"COMMENT" l'éponge de Mer arrive jusqu'à nous ...
EVERYTHING ABOUT THE SEA SPONGE
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The sponge became a luxury item by necessity.
The natural sea sponge is the skeleton of a marine animal. It is a form of a primitive pluricelleular life, formed by collagen fibers weaving a network of big density and intended to retain the water.
Their reproduction process in fact call up " zoophyte " ", from animal Greek plant ".
Larvas released by the female sponges live free only two days then settle on a rock or a bottom of not unstable sand. They bring in their lashes then stay immobile for the rest of its life.
For the Mediterranean Sea the period of reproduction is from the end of March till the middle of June.
So that a "hippospongia" stemming from a larva reaches ten centimeters in diameter it is necessary to count two years.Its life expectancy is estimated at approximately 50 years for a "hippospongia" of one metre in diameter against 25 years for the Carribean “Hippospongia”.
En Méditerranée il existe plusieurs espèces d'éponges :
In the Mediterranean Sea there are several sorts of sponges:
We selected "Gerby" or " Hipposongia communis " ( common Sponge) and hyppospongia Lachne also called "Cuba Wool".
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The most beautiful sponge is unmistakably the Mediterranean one
In the thirties, the world production peaked around 1 400 tons.
In 1991, this production stagnated around 60 tons.
The profession of sponges fisherman goes out slowly, notably to Kalymnos, small Greek island of the Diocanèse called " the sponges island". The fact remains that on this attractive island of the archipelago, " Sponge and Traditions " remain confidentially bound.
The sponges picking is practised since the antiquity but the real exploitation began only in the XIXth century.
They are fished along the Tunisian coast, around the Greek archipelago, along the coast Syro-Palestinian as well as on the facade of Alexandria until Tripolitaine
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There are several types of fishing:
With an harpoon:
Between 0 to 12 metres, with calfat glasses.
In free dive:
In apnea between 20 and 30 metres.
The diver quickly goes down with a big stone and looks for the most difficult places of access.
The fisherman, mainly Greek, realizes every time an exploit because this method is the most dangerous.
With a “Gangave”:
By means of a special trawl net called "Gangave", practised only on benches of flat sponges.
With a deep sea diving suit:
The fisherman dressed in a diving suit is connected to the boat by two pipes and a system of pump which allows him to inhale.
He can come down up to 40 metres, to pick up the sponges with a hook, then put them in its net
With a Fernez
The fernez is a mask member completely with the face provided with a device of breath connected by a pipe with the bottles which the fisherman holds on his back.
With Narguile:
It is also about a mask member with the face, but this time the pipe is connected with the boat which gives him the compressed air.
He allows the fisherman to dive depply and with more ease.
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The sponges business remains nevertheless very dynamic.
France consumes and resells more half of the world production, notably in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic sectors to quote from it that two.
The Sponge undergoes a treatment before being marketed.
They are cleared fromd alive tissues by stalling. It is the milk elimination: the sarcode.
They are then washed by a process consisting in letting them soak into some sea water 24 hours to remove the black membrane which recovers them.
After drying in the sun, the biggest foreign bodies are deprived of the hand, and the shape is settled.
The calcareous fragments are dissolved in a diluted acid solution.
It has to remain only the skeleton which is cleared during several successive baths.
The sponge becomes elastic and ready for use.
" The Beautiful Greek " and the " Beautiful Tunisian " became at the moment luxury items.
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