13 Women Farm Sponges to Protect Their Ocean (and Their Income)

As ocean waters are warming, 13 women from the African island of Zanzibar now turn to sponge farming to earn a living, learning how to swim, and even becoming conservationists in an effort to rebalance the ecosystem and prevent overfishing.

“I met someone in Micronesia who was sponge farming and I saw the benefits of bringing this idea to Zanzibar,” says Christian Vaterlaus, cofounder of the Swiss environmental charity marinecultures.org. “When people realize that with farming the sea is more sustainable than overfishing it, the sea is seen as a friend that provides you with a living and it is important to protect it.”

More than 90% of seaweed farmers are women, and since they rely on the ocean for their livelihood, some of these women have taken it upon themselves to trade seaweed farming, fishing, and tourism with farming natural sponges, which act as a buffer against climate and economic turmoils the island suffers from. Sponges are resilient to an ever-changing climate, require less maintenance than seaweed, and they offer an eco-friendly alternative to synthetic ones. The 13 women grow some 1,500 sponges, and since this type of farming provides an alternative to overfishing, the strain on the coastal ecosystem is lessened.