Zanzibar women turn to sponge farming as oceans heat up

Around 10 in the morning each day, women in hijabs and loose long dresses wade through Zanzibar’s turquoise shallow tides to tend their sponge farms — a new lifeline after climate change upended their former work.

Rising ocean temperatures, overfishing, and pollution have steadily degraded marine ecosystems around the island, undermining a key source of income for locals in Jambiani village who long depended on farming seaweed.

Instead, they have turned to sponge cultivation under a project set up by Swiss NGO Marine Cultures.

Hot temperatures have killed seaweed, and declining fish stocks have driven many fishermen to quit, said project manager Ali Mahmudi.

But sponges — which provide shelter and food for sea creatures — tend to thrive in warmer waters.

They are also lucrative as an