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February 22, 2021: Glass Sponge

This glass sponge of the genus Caulophacus was seen while exploring on a ridge extending to the southeast of Castellano Seamount, south of the Midway Islands, as part of the 2016 Hohonu Moana: Exploring Deep Waters off Hawaiʻi expedition.

Image courtesy of NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Hohonu Moana 2016. Download larger version (jpg, 861 KB).

This glass sponge of the genus Caulophacus was seen while exploring on a ridge extending to the southeast of Castellano Seamount, south of the Midway Islands, as part of the 2016 Hohonu Moana: Exploring Deep Waters off Hawaiʻi expedition. These sponges, which belong to the Class Hexactinellida, get their common name of “glass sponge” because their skeletons are made of silica, which is the same material used to make glass...but glass sponges are not glass, per se.