Old growth – Sponge forests in the depths

Diving beyond regular recreation depths comes with a whole host of challenges: extensive additional dive training, additional scuba gear, and in depth planning, just to name a few. But when you want to see something so bad you pull your socks up and get to work, learning, planning, and training.

Cloud Sponge-1.jpg

One such thing that I’ve put the work into is to be able to dive and photograph are the ancient cloud sponge gardens that exist in Saanich Inlet north of Victoria on Vancouver Island and Hecate Strait. These sponges typically live deeper than 45 meters (150 ft.), so dive time is limited.

Cloud Sponge-6.jpg

Cloud sponges or glass sponges are some of the oldest and simplest animals on earth. Dating back more than 500 million years ago long before the first dinosaurs or fish. Although individual glass sponges can be seen growing throughout the world’s oceans, glass sponge reefs are incredibly rare. Unfortunately world populations of these sponge gardens began to die out about 40 million years ago and today the only living gardens are found along the coast of British Columbia. Scientists believe that these waters provide a perfect combination of unusually high silica and oxygen content, ideal water flow, food supply and temperature regulation that all work together to create a set of unique conditions that the glass sponges need in order to grow.

Cloud Sponge-2.jpg

These “living dinosaurs” don’t have eyes or even a stomach, yet they do some amazing things. Glass sponges build intricate skeletons out of silica (glass) that provide many other animals with a home, and they filter vast quantities of bacteria from the water and grow to tremendous heights. Some reaching the size of a large car and growing to 7 meter (21 ft.)

Cloud Sponge-7.jpg

To swim among the ancients is awe inspiring. These fragile communities of creatures are hit hard by both poor fishing practices and pollution. We need to realize that everything we do as human’s impacts the world around us and we can destroy something that has been living on this planet far longer than us.

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More images and stories at - http://www.scottstevensonphotography.ca/

Thank you for reading.

Nice i Wonder how you get so much steem for yor posts? I only get one penny. I am sure i 'll get alot of posts as well.

ha ha.. this is really help full....lol

Lovely post thanks for sharing 👍

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These photographs are incredible, it's like another planet. Love the little red fish in the coral - it looks so content!

Awesome experience, the creatures in the sea are more than land I think. So incredible and undefined stuff. I love the waters and enjoy swimming. Diving will be a great experience for me. Thanks

This is really cool, I did some research on these sponges and saw more pictures. They really do look like glass.

Thanks for the vote and its great you check out more info on the sponges.

Even with all our technology and the inventions that make modern life so much easier than it once was, it takes just one big natural disaster to wipe all that away and remind us that, here on Earth, we're still at the mercy of nature.

The good human is the friend of all living things.

Congratulations it's beautiful @scottdphoto . Must feel great - that is a lot of work!

Thank you, I do. I have dove many times in the sponge gardens.

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