Sea sponges are from the Porifera family living under the seawater. They are multicellular and are made in a way to circulate water through them. Sea sponges generally don’t have complicated nervous, digestive and respiratory system like humans and other animals.
Types of sea sponges:
- Demospongiae: It is the most diverse living sea sponges in the world. It covers almost 90% of the sea sponges found in the world. Some of them are left with hard skeletons which help the marine biologists and marine palaeontologists to track the history of those sponges.
- Hexactinellida: It’s considered as one of the rarest glass sponges across the world. Their height varies between 10 and 30 cms but some sponges from this category may grow more than 30 cms. As they are glass sponges, mostly they colour is quite pale.
- Calcarea: These are the only sponges which has a particular spicule (skeleton) made of calcium carbonate. These are mainly found in the temperate zones of the world. They don’t survive in the polar regions, that’s why you can find them in Indian, Atlantic and temperate zones of Pacific oceans.
- Homoscleromorpha: They are rarely found because of tiny spicules and under the sea water they don’t survive for decades. The water pressure and sea water erosion don’t let them stay for longer. 81% of these sea sponges are found under Mediterranean Sea, inside the ocean caves.
Top 10 sea sponge harvesting countries:
You might be surprised to know that Tunisia is the highest producer of sea sponges. This may also be counted as the highest sea sponge harvesting country in the world. The highest sponge exporters are Tunisia, Cuba, France, Greece, Bahamas and Türkiye. On the other hand, the highest sea sponge importers in the world are France, USA, Japan, Italy and Spain. Though these countries have a long sea line, but they don’t produce enough sea sponges. Ocean currents and the under-water landscape are also responsible for the less production of sponges.
Uses of sea sponges:
- Natural skin exfoliator. Removes dead skin and helps you to bring the inner radiance out.
- Some brands use soft sea sponges as beauty blenders to apply cosmetics on the face. It helps to blend the makeup seamlessly.
- Some brands use sea sponges to make car cleaning accessories. Helps to shine your cars.
- If you are looking for a good scrub to clean your bathroom and kitchen slabs and sinks, then sea sponges could be a fantastic option. They come cheap and can be used for long. Once they are eroded you can easily replace it.
- Instead of using plastic scrubs, natural sea sponges are a great alternative. They are environment friendly, easily available and inexpensive too.
Sea sponge business across the globe:
The Global Natural Sea Sponge Market is predicting a considerable growth in the sea sponge business across the world by 2030. Due to COVID19, the business dropped drastically. The global lockdown didn’t allow the divers to dive in to collect sponges. Presently, the Russia – Ukraine war is also impacting the business as the Red Sea is falling under the war zone and collection of the sponges would be life threatening.
The largest sea sponge manufacturers are Natural Bath and Body, Swissco, Baby Buddy, Ideal Eponge and The Natural. Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations predicted that, by 2026 the business of sea sponges is going to reach till 4.2 billion USD a year.
By now, you must have been thinking that sea sponge is a huge commercial business. But you may be surprised to know that sea sponges are also equally effective in the fields like, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and botany. Sponges are highly effective to be used as a medicinal component and is approved by FDA (Food and Drug Administration).