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Human usage of mermaid's glove sponge (Isodictya palmata) on the Faroes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 December 2007

Ingvar Svanberg
Affiliation:
Department of Eurasian Studies, Uppsala University, Box 514, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden. E-mail: ingvar.svanberg@eurasia.uu.se

Abstract

There is very little documentation on the economic importance of locally available marine sponges (Porifera) in north-western Europe. From Iceland and the Faroe Islands there are records of naming and using the so-called mermaid's glove sponge (Isodictya palmata) especially for cleaning purposes. As late as in the 1940s, school children in the Faroe Islands gathered this sponge and used it to clean the slate.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2007 Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom

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