"Hexactinellae" from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur, 1904Cloud sponge (Aphrocallistes vastus) is a major reef-building species
Sponge reefs are reefs produced by sea sponges. All modern sponge reefs are formed by hexactinellid sponges, which have an endoskeleton made of silica spicules and are often referred to as "glass sponges", while historically the non-spiculed, calcite-skeletoned archaeocyathid and stromatoporoid sponges were the primary reef-builders.
Sponge reefs were once a dominant landscape in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic sea, but are now very rare, and found only in waters off the coast of North America's Pacific Northwest region, more specifically southern Alaska, British Columbia and Washington. Sponge reefs were reported in 2018 within the strait of Georgia and Howe sound close to Vancouver.[1] Although still common in the late Jurassic period, reef-building sponges were believed to have gone extinct during or shortly after the Cretaceous period, until the existing reefs were discovered in Queen Charlotte sound in 1987–1988[2] – hence these sometimes being dubbed living fossils.
Like coral reefs, sponge reefs serve an important ecological function as feeding, breeding and nursery habitats for demersal fish and invertebrates but are currently threatened by the commercial fishery, offshore oil and gas industries.[3][4] Attempts are being made to protect these unique ecosystems through fishery closures and potentially the establishment of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) around the sponge reefs.[3]
^Dunham, A.; Archer, S. K.; Davies, S. C.; Burke, L. A.; Mossman, J.; Pegg, J. R.; Archer, E. (1 October 2018). "Assessing condition and ecological role of deep-water biogenic habitats: Glass sponge reefs in the Salish Sea". Marine Environmental Research. 141: 88–99. doi:10.1016/j.marenvres.2018.08.002. ISSN 0141-1136. PMID 30115533. S2CID 52015990.
^ Hexactinellid sponge reefs on the British Columbia continental shelf: Geological and biological structure (Report). DFO Pacific Region Habitat Status Report. Department of Fisheries and Oceans. February 2000.
^ ab Jamieson, G.S.; Chew, L. (2002). Hexactinellid sponge reefs: Areas of interest as marine protected areas in the north and central coast areas (Report). Can Sci Adv Sec Res Doc. Vol. 12.
^Protecting the glass sponge reefs from offshore oil and gas (PDF) (Report). Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 November 2004. Retrieved 28 March 2008.
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