July to September 2012: Pole Pole!
08.09.2012
July to September 2012: Pole Pole!
The experiences of this period have made us rework our initially high expectations of setting up two pilot farms this year. We have observed that the growth rate of the black sponges has been slower than expected; this could be explained by three main factors.
- The black sponges are not found naturally in the Jambiani lagoon. This means that in the farm the sponges are not in their prefered habitat.
- A high level of fouling has been observed on the black sponges; this is probably connected with the first explanation and may be another factor inhibiting their growth.
- Until now, we have had a period of only six months to track the growth of the sponges. Therefore, we have not been able to account for possible seasonal variations in the growth rates.
At the moment, the big farm does not supply enough seed sock for additional farms, and so we have to extend our timetable for setting up the pilot farms. We are now carrying out different tests to explore the possible courses of action to manage these factors.
The big test farm
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