Friday, June 6, 2014

Big Sponge...any relation to Bob Square Pants?


Big Sponge…

…is located on the south side of Long Key, FL.

It’s called Big Sponge because there are some very big sponges or Porifera living on the substrate filtering the water column like sponges do.

This was our first snorkel dive of the day and after jumping into the warm azure waters of the Florida keys we observed patchy fields of Thalassia testudinum and Halodule wrightii commonly referred to as turtle grass and shoal grass respectively.
Shoal grass
Turtle grass

So we ask, are there any turtles in the area to eat the grass and most likely the answer is yes from time to time. Though we just didn’t see any today. But if we did most likely it may be a green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas).
Green Sea Turtle
Underwater we observed Big Sponge to be a near shore marine environment with a sandy hard bottom that supports a diversity of sea grass species, alga, sponges, corals, sea cucumbers, and small fishes.

The water was relatively clear with about 10-12 feet visibility for an overcast day.

It took a while to locate the big Loggerhead sponges, but once found excitement unleashed as snorkeler’s heads popped above the water sharing with everyone the quarry had been found. You could hear beckoning calls, “hey you guys, over here, we found’em, there’s big sponges and they’re really cool!!
Loggerhead sponge
 
Amazingly, upon closer investigation, was that each big sponge seemed to have it’s own small ecosystem living around it. There were Christmas Tree Worms poking their feathery arms in and out of their sponge apartments, lobsters hanging inside and underneath the large sponge bodies, small wrasses and gobies were playing house, as well as occasional juvenile French Angelfish and lane snapper.




All this water activity, discovery and excitement in just one hour; this is what makes marine science and diving worth every moment!




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