The Sponge Act is a

Federal statute The United States Code (formally The Code of Laws of the United States of America) is the official codification of the general and permanent federal statutes of the United States. It contains 53 titles, which are organized into numbered se ...

that makes it illegal to take, catch, or sell, commercial

sponge Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), a basal clade and a sister taxon of the diploblasts. They are sessile filter feeders that are bound to the seabed, and a ...

s that are less than 5 inches in diameter when wet. The law only applies to two areas: the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

and the

Straits of Florida The Straits of Florida, Florida Straits, or Florida Strait () is a strait located south-southeast of the North American mainland, generally accepted to be between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, and between the Florida Keys (U.S.) an ...

. The penalty for a violation of this law is a fine not to exceed $500 and a

lien A lien ( or ) is a form of security interest granted over an item of property to secure the payment of a debt or performance of some other obligation. The owner of the property, who grants the lien, is referred to as the ''lienee'' and the pers ...

on the vessel on which the offense was committed.,

References

United States federal environmental legislation {{US-law-stub