The people are employed in fishing for coral and sponges, as well as for bream, mullet and other fish.
Sponges grow in great variety.
For sponge fishing no accurate statistics are available before 1896; in that year 75 tons of sponges were secured, but there has been considerable diminution since, only 31 tons being obtained in 1902.
Wotton follows Aristotle 1 in the division of animals into the Enaema and the Anaema, and in fact in the recognition of all the groups above given, adding only one large group to those recognized by Aristotle under the Anaema, modifica- namely, the group of Zoophyta, in which Wotton includes the Holothuriae, Star-Fishes, Medusae, Sea-Anemones and Sponges.
It was taken by the Turks in the 16th century, and is now noted for its sponges.