Sponge samples were thawed until they reached room temperature and 1 cm3 was removed from each collected specimen. For those sponges that were massive the sample was taken from the interior tissue of the sponge. Several sterile mortars and pestles were used to homogenize each sponge individually. A ten-fold series dilution was prepared with each of the specimens. To begin, the samples were heat-treated in a water bath set at 55 °C for 60 minutes. The heat-treated homogenates were plated on isolation media and incubated at 25 °C in dark aerobic conditions. Three selective media were used for the growth of actinomycetes (Table 3).