Regional Commercial Sponge Extinctions in the West Indies: Are Recent Climatic Changes Responsible?

Long‐term changes in the distributional patterns of commercial sponges (Spongia spp. and Hippospongia spp.) within the West Indian Region indicates that: 1) commercial sponges had a widespread distribution throughout the whole West Indian Region and were ubiquitous in very shallow water until about the first half of the present century; 2) they were fished commercially not only in the traditional northern Caribbean sites (Florida, Gulf of Mexico, Bahamas) but also in the Greater (e. g., Hispaniola, Jamaica) and Lesser Antilles; and 3) they became extinct throughout most of the Lesser Antilles (e. g., Puerto Rico, Vieques, St. Thomas) sometime during the first half of this century. Mortalities of spongiids within the Antilles were found to differ from other marine mortalities in that: 1) species disappeared from a large region; 2) species vanished from different habitats and depths; and 3) natural populations never recovered. Species richness patterns suggest that commercial sponge genera (Spongia and Hippospongia) evolved under slightly cooler elimatic conditions than those found at present, and that these extinctions occurred as a direct or indirect effect of positive thermal anomalies in sea surface and atmospheric temperatures between 1900–1950. The concept that species diversity is stable on a regional scale is questioned.