The Sponge Industry. Sorting, trimming, and baling sponges at Key West, Fla.

Engraved by Photo Eng. N.Y. Note under title: (Sect. v, vol. ii, p. 828.) From a photograph.

Sponges, or sea sponges, are living aquatic animals made of flexible protein skeletons and jelly-like bodies. They grow on reefs and rocky outcrops in the ocean, estuaries, and fresh water and are important to coral reef ecosystems.

Sponges were used domestically by Key West, Florida pioneers soon after the town was settled in 1822. These Florida-caught sponges were shipped to markets in New York and sold for domestic cleaning and personal hygiene, as upholstery stuffing and packing material, and for cleaning military cannons.