What is a Bahamian sea sponge?
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Most natural sea sponges sold in the UK come from the Mediterranean. Ours come from somewhere quite different: the shallow, turquoise waters around Long Island in the Bahamas. Here's what a Bahamian sea sponge actually is, how it's harvested, and the surprising history behind it.
First, a sea sponge is an animal
Sponges are among the simplest animals on Earth. They live fixed to the sea bed, have no brain, nerves or organs, and feed by filtering seawater through thousands of tiny channels. Those channels are what make a bath sponge so good at holding water and lather. The sponge you use in the bath is the animal's soft, cleaned skeleton.
Which sponges grow in the Bahamas?
There are thousands of sponge species, but only a handful are soft enough to use in the bath. In the Bahamas, the traditional commercial types include grass, wool (also called sheepswool), yellow, reef and hardhead sponges. The prized velvet sponge was once harvested here too, but has rarely, if ever, been found since the 1930s.
Ours are grass sponges (Spongia graminea). They grow on shallow banks just a few metres deep, and they're very soft: springy, light and gentle enough for the face.
How is a Bahamian sponge different from a Mediterranean one?
Mediterranean sponges, such as the honeycomb and silk sponges you'll find in many UK shops, are different species from different waters. Honeycomb sponges have large, open holes; silk sponges are very fine and dense. A Bahamian grass sponge has its own feel: soft and springy, with an open, airy texture.
There's no single "best" sponge. It comes down to the feel you like. What makes ours different is that we can tell you exactly where each one comes from.
How Bahamian sponges are harvested
For well over a century, Bahamian spongers have worked from small boats in the shallows. Traditionally, they spotted sponges through a "water glass" (a bucket with a glass bottom) and pried them from the sea bed with a long pole and hook. The fresh sponges were then left in a pen of sticks in shallow water, called a kraal, so the tide could wash away the outer skin.
Today, our sponger on Long Island still collects by hand from a small boat. The sponges are left in shallow water for a few days, beaten and rinsed clean, then dried in the island sun, usually hung on the branches of a tree. When a sponge is cut rather than pulled up whole, it can regrow from the part left behind on the sea bed, which is why careful hand-harvesting matters. You can see each step on our process page.
A quarter of the world's sponges
The Bahamian sponge trade is said to have started in 1841, when a Frenchman named Gustave Renouard was shipwrecked in the islands and began shipping sponges to Europe. It grew fast. By around 1900, the Bahamas had a sponging fleet of about 600 boats, and in 1917 its waters supplied roughly a quarter of all the world's sponges.
Then, in late 1938, a microscopic disease swept through the sponge beds and killed almost all of them. Thousands of people lost their living, and cheap synthetic sponges soon took much of what was left of the market.
The sponges did come back. By around 1980 there were enough for commercial sponging again, and today a small number of spongers still work the shallow banks on islands like Long Island, often for a few months each year.
Why Long Island?
Long Island is a narrow strip of the southern Bahamas, about 80 miles long and never more than 4 miles wide. Its east coast faces the Atlantic, but its west coast is calm and shallow, which is exactly where grass sponges thrive. Our family has strong ties to the island, and that's where we met our sponger. Meet Long Island →
Try a Bahamian sea sponge
Every sponge we sell is hand-harvested on Long Island, then measured, checked and graded by hand by our family in Kent. No two are the same. Start with The Daily Sponge for the face and hands, or The Shower Sponge for everyday use.