I found a Sponge!

Back on June 12th I published a pretty photo of something I found on the beach.  I thought perhaps it was a different form of seaweed and some who commented thought it was coral because of it's color and shape.  I did some research and really couldn't find anything that came close to looking anything like my photo. 

 I have a friend here on Gather that I met through my group whose name is David Evans.  David is a  marine biologist and publishes some wonderful photos and articles here on Gather.  If you haven't come across any of his postings and you love nature you may want to check his page.   I sent him a message and a link to my photo explaining that I had no clue as to what I found and asked for his help.  David wrote back very promptly and also left two comments on my photo which I am adding here along with a few more photos to share. 

It's great to meet people like David here on Gather who have so much knowledge to share and do it very willingly.  Thank you David for sharing this information and satisfying my curiosity.  Here is the photo I published and David's comments to help learn about my find.

David's comments:

Nana 2-7,
I'm more than happy to throw my two bits in, and glad that you asked...

It looks very much to be a sponge... and if it is soft and flexible the way you describe it, that's likely what it is! :) Neat!

It's beautiful...
If you place it back in seawater, it might recover... not sure of the species...
(be careful handling it... Some live sponges can leave tiny spines in your skin that can irritate it)

There are some underwater shots sponges and other stuff here:
Marine Life: Pearl Harbor

Most of the bright orange stuff in those photos are tunicates (salps)...

Beautiful critters...
Thanks for sharing Nana!
Best,
DJE

NOTE: FROM ME - The link takes you to one of David's wonderful articles with some beautiful photos.

Then I he came back and commented again with even more interesting information about sponges:

It does look like coral! But it's not! :)

The holes that are visible at the terminal ends of some of the pieces (the short ones are visible) appear to be ostia, the openings where water gets pumped through while the sponges are feeding and ejecting their wastes. Sponges act as single cellular colonial animals for the most part. Each cell takes care of itself, except together they create the form of the sponge critter. Sort of like a Bryozoan. They have no "organs" except the openings and the passages and chambers within the sponge form.

Some have spicules that are tiny sharp and pointy and not so good for rubbing on the skin (it can irritate).

Corals have a hard exterior skeleton made of that white stony material we think of as coral. The Caribbean and Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico don't have any species of coral that have the form shown in this picture and there aren't any that take up color into their stony skeletal structure to such a bright degree. Corals retract into their skeletal homes pulling the color of their soft fleshy selves with them. That leaves a more whitish color to the coral or a more subdued color of thin fleshy layers that cover the outer skeleton between themselves and their neighbors in the coral colony.

Corals themselves owe most of their colors to their algal symbionts (zooxanthelae). Single celled plant critters that live in the flesh of the corals and help feed the coral critters. Warming waters pose a problem to corals and their symbiotic algae. When sea temperatures rise, they stress the corals and their reaction seems to be to eject the algae. This makes them appear more whitish (or whatever pale color their skeletons are). It's called Coral Bleaching.

Climate Change/Global Warming is posing a problem to corals worldwide due to this problem among others, like increased diseases and disease susceptibility. Corals reefs are already in dire straits from a variety sources. Fishing, collecting, boat and people traffic over the reefs... and water quality. If you think about it: Everything we do on land near the coasts often runs off into the water directly into the corals habitats.

There may be some soft corals (Gorgonians) that have some of the appearance of this sponge, but they would not be quite as flexible or soft to the touch. They would not have the openings at the terminal ends of the branches. But really, there aren't any that quite have the form of this sponge here.

Sponges are mostly left alone by most fish because of their spicules and some are toxic, but some are eaten by fish. Sponges can be a favorite dish of Sea Turtles though. I guess they have heavy duty tongues! But it gets them in trouble sometimes because they eat pieces of garbage floating in the sea that look like sponges and jellyfish but end up being indigestible plastic do-hickies and choking plastic bags...

well, some spongy thoughts there...
Anyhoo... Go Team Sponge!!! ;)

DJE

I have a few more photos I took after moving the pieces around a little to show that it was flexible and soft and to get different angles.

So now we know what it is and I'm only sorry that I didn't keep it to add to my collection of interesting things found at the beach, but then again, I haven't kept any of the dead jelly fish either.  After reading David's comments, I do feel bad that I didn't have DH take it out into the ocean, maybe it would have kept growing.

So thanks to David for all his great information.  I just love learning new things.

Photos taken with Canon PowerShot S3IS