Featured Creatures

Deep-sea coral and sponge reefs thrive in the depths of the cold seas around the globe. Unlike shallow, tropical coral and sponge reefs, these deep-sea coral and sponge reefs live where there’s little light, from 150 feet to more than 10,000 feet below sea level. These are the least explored places in the ocean.

Glass sponges get their name from their spicules built from silica – glass. Sponges don’t have skeletons like ours; instead they have spicules, which are the structural components like bricks. The glass sponge’s design has intrigued engineers who want to understand how they build glass structures of such strength. 

A Swell Goiter!Goiter sponges, like the one here, live in cold, deep waters – 300-4,000 feet—often on seamounts. These sponges average about three feet across but can grow to be nearly 10 feet across. Like most sponges they are filter feeders, pumping in seawater and extracting food particles from the water.In the Pacific Northwest, goiter sponges and other glass sponges build deep-sea sponge reefs. The sponges’ dense, silica (glass) skeletons remain after a sponge’s death, forming an ideal surface for yet more sponges to grow on. The three-dimensional structure of these reefs is comparable to coral reefs and provides habitat for a diversity of creatures.

Giant barrel sponges are common inhabitants of coral reefs, especially in the Caribbean. Not only are they the largest sponges on the reef, but they also are very long lived – up to thousands of years. Like most sponges, they pump water through their bodies to obtain food: plankton, bacteria and nutrients from the seawater.

Photo from National Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationHow can a sponge catch prey when it just sits on the bottom of the ocean pumping water? It seems that even the sponge’s simple body plan has evolved a way to trap animals and then eat them.  Talk about Adaptability!