Coral Reef Photos » Sponges

Purple Stove Pipe Sponges, Diving Eastpoint

barry — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 02:06:29 +0000

Hi friends, not a lot to report this evening as the sub has been inside for the past few days but tomorrow we have customers and will probably do around three trips. In one of the sub dives tomorrow I will be going inside the sub to a big sunken ship that lays at around 450 feet deep, we are going to try and make some nice photos from inside. After work I met a friend for a fast one hour ride. We ended up riding on all the trails in the area behind the aquarium and down by the salt ponds. Speaking of the salt ponds they are again filling up with water from all this rain we have had lately, really strange weather year!

Here’s another fun photo from my last trip to the Eastpoint. This is Eric checking out a beautiful little cluster of purple stove pipe sponges, these are about as good as they get. I found it very hard to concentrate on the job at hand as there was so much stuff to photograph, it’s really the place to dive in Curacao!

Very tired, sorry so short, back tomorrow, Barry

Orange Elephant Ear Sponge, Faces in Nature

barry — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 00:39:09 +0000

Hi readers, here’s something fun from my dive today at Directors Bay with the World Famous Dive Bus Hut crew. These are natural faces on the side of a big Orange Elephant Ear sponge, Agelas clathrodes. I found one sponge today that had so many fun faces on it that I thought I would send you a bunch all at once, yeah I know “what a wild imaginanition”! Here’s some text from a fun site called Sea and Sky, “many sponges are extremely plant-like in appearance but are actually one of the most primitive animals in the sea. They belong to a group called porifera. Most of us are familiar with the dried colorless varieties that populate the kitchens and bathrooms of the world. But in the ocean, live sponges can be found in an infinite variety of colors and shapes. Most of them are relatively small, but some varieties can grow to over 6 feet in diameter. Sponges differ from all other marine invertebrates in that they have no true tissues or organs. Their structure is composed of simple aggregations of cells. The name porifera means pore bearer. The tissue of sponges encloses a vast network of chambers and canals that connect to the open pores on their surface. Sponges feed by drawing a current of water in through their pores, filtering out the nutrients, and then ejecting it out through an opening. Many sponges on the coral reef resemble some of the corals in shape and color, but upon closer inspection the difference is apparent. They are one of the many life forms unique to the ocean environment”. check out www.seasky.org for even more information. Did you know that a report in 1997 described use of sponges as a tool by bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia. A dolphin will attach a marine sponge to its rostrum, which is presumably then used to protect it when searching for food in the sandy sea bottom .The behavior, known as ”Sponging” has only been observed in this bay, and is almost exclusively shown by females. A study in 2005 concluded that mothers teach the behavior to their daughters, and that all the sponge-users are closely related, suggesting that it is a fairly recent innovation, cool huh, I love sponges!

I had another really busy day and it’s 8:00 and I still haven’t had dinner, where’s Aimee??? Went to Saint Joris with the dogs very early and cleaned trash for 2 hours then met my friends for a fun drift dive, then went shopping, then did a 3 hour bike ride and finally took the dogs back out for their evening walk and filled up all my bird feeders in the desert with water. That’s it for me today, till tomorrow, Barry

Blue, Pink-Lilac, Purple Sponge, Callyspongia fallax

barry — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 23:48:12 +0000

Good evening readers, this is going to be fast because Aimee and I are going over to a friends house in just a few minutes.

This turned out to be one of the coolest sponges I found or should I say Sal found in Bonaire. When I got home I looked and looked for this sponge in books and on-line and couldn’t find a thing and we really needed a name. So I sent a note to Sven Zea, Ph.D. Professor Titular, Universidad Nacional de Colombia who is one of the leading sponge authorities in the World, check out their site at www.spongeguide.org Sven immediately wrote us back and confirmed that this was a beautiful cluster of Callyspongia fallax. He also went on to say that it is rare to see this variety spreading so much because usually you only find these sponges in small colonies. A big thanks to Tim Henkel as well for first identifying this sponge and then sending me to Sven for confirmation. Also we have another sponge expert on our list Brendan Biggs that is constantly helping with names and correcting us when we are wrong, we really appreciate his comments and information as well!!

Sorry but I have to go, puppies are doing great, photos soon!! Bye, Barry

Diseased Azure Vase Sponge, Callyspongia Plicifera

barry — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:00:29 +0000

Good evening readers, we are officially the owners of three new cute puppies!! Aimee went this morning and easily found and picked up two of them and at the time could not find the third. She immediately brought them home and gave them around five baths each removing ticks and fleas and cleaning a few small wounds. At 2:00 she took them to the vet who then gave them some heartworm medication, and other stuff for their skin problems and the fleas and ticks, no parvo shots yet. The vet said since they just were given all these other meds that they need to wait a week before receiving their first official shots. The pups then slept very quietly all day in the puppy coral I built. At 5:00 Aimee took off in search of the other and moments later returned with a smile on her face! She then took off again with the new one to the vet and then once home gave that one five baths and now all three are busy chewing on rawhide sticks and seem very happy! So far so good! I will wait a few days for their skin to heal and then do a puppy photo shoot, I can hardly wait. We are obviously counting on you guys out there to help us with homes. Aimee will be more than happy to deliver one to the States in July if your interested so please think about it or ask around.

This is a yellow or cream Azure Vase Sponge. Most of you have seen these in purple from me more than the yellow, this color is much harder to find. Most of you already know that sponges are animals and come in many sizes, shapes and colors. You know I was wondering how many divers out there ever take the time to swim over to a sponge like this and really check it out?? Many times if you swim over and look down inside the tubes you will see small fish or crabs that use these beautiful sponges as their homes. Please for me the next time your out diving start paying closer attention to the sponges and tell me if you find one that really stands out, I would love to photograph it.

That’s it for tonight, the puppies are now playing, I hear a little growling and little barks! Bye, Barry

Purple Stove Pipe Sponges and Yellow Tube Sponges

barry — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 11:14:07 +0000

Bonaire Reef Scene with Patty

Good morning all, looking thru my Bonaire photos I sent out already I noticed I had not sent one out of our friend Patty yet and found this one just waiting to be sent. Patty is Sal’s wife and while in Bonaire they had me over for dinner quite a few times, and let me tell you there’s nothing like a home cooked meal while on vacation!! I can’t remember which dive site this was at but I think it was Red Beryl again?? I remember we had just got to the edge of the reef and this sponge cluster was the first thing I spotted, it stood out like a sore thumb! This was the first time I had ever seen Yellow Tube sponges growing next to Purple Stove Pipe sponges and then topped off with Green Finger sponge all around the base, it was a beautiful specimen. The other thing that really stands out in my mind was all the fish on this dive, it Brown Cromis Heaven! Patty timed her swim over perfectly and I was able to get a few of her above the sponge cluster before we moved on in search of other fascinating things.

Not much new going on, Aimee and I are headed out to do some trail work soon but other than that the day is still unwritten. Better go, talk to you more tonight, Barry

Red Boring Sponge, Cliona delitrix, Bonaire, Sponges

barry — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 00:40:57 +0000

Red Boring Sponge

Good evening all, guess what, it’s finally raining!!! We woke this morning to standing water and a light rain and it hasn’t stopped all day, it’s so great! This island needed rain so bad, our desert is completely brown and most of the cacti are dying so this couldn’t have come at a better time! It was a difficult day at work trying to take photos outside but with the help of others we were able to photograph from under umbrellas.

This is one of my personal favorites from Bonaire. This is something I haven’t seen much in Curacao but in Bonaire I found three or four fantastic specimens. This is called Red Boring Sponge, Cliona delitrix. What your looking at folks is a red to red-orange sponge that at first glance appears to be an encrusting sponge, but actually bores into coral heads. They do this by secreting minute amounts of acid. From the exterior there is usually no visible damage, however the corals interiors may be riddled with tunnels and chambers that may eventually cause their structures to disintegrate. For those of you who remember sponges draw water in from hundreds of tiny holes called Incurrent Pores and exits into the body’s interior cavity and out the animals one or more large Excurrent Openings or Oscula. It’s easy to see the excurrent openings here. I have friends here that are starting to call me a “sponge freak” or maybe “sponge geek” would be better, but they are so cool! Some of this text was again from our underwater Bible, the Reef Creature Identification book by Paul Humann and Ned Deloach without these books we would be lost.

Thanks for all the mail helping me find a name for my little reptile I sent out yesterday. The real name is a Spectacled Teju, Gymnophthalmus lineatus or as others call it here a Red Tailed Skink. Thanks to everyone for helping.

It’s still raining, this will make our walk with the dogs tomorrow very interesting! We went to see the new movie from DreamWorks last night called “How to train a Dragon” it was great! See you tomorrow, Barry

Yellow Tube Sponges, Captain Don’s Reef, Bonaire

barry — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:12:27 +0000

Bonaire Sponges

Hello all it’s me again!! In case you haven’t noticed, reef scenes like this one here are one of my favorite things to shoot!! There’s just nothing like searching and combing the reef looking for that one sponge or that one coral head that stands out from the rest. Then once your in position and ready to take the photo have your dive buddy swim slowly overhead and presto you have the makings for a beautiful photo. This spectacular yellow tube sponge was found at Captain Don’s Reef on the island of Klein Bonaire. I think this was at around 65 feet it was just glowing on the reef and begged to have it’s picture taken. That’s Scott shooting video way up there and thanks to him and Tammi I got to go on this great dive! I remember looking down deeper like to 100 feet or so and seeing so many beautiful sponges down there but was unable to go after them, this would be a great spot for a deep dive. Soon after shooting this photo a beautiful little hawksbill turtle swam by and we noticed it had been caught and tagged, that was the first time I had seen that before.

Aimee went with our friends Sara and Ann today to a popular dive site called Puerto Mari. I think it’s safe to say they all had a wonderful day in the Caribbean sun and clear water. I worked but am still fighting this stupid cough, it’s really annoying!

That’s about it. still very hot and no rain! Be back tomorrow, Barry

Diving with Scott and Tammi from Black Hills Scuba, SD

barry — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 01:08:34 +0000

Azure Vase Sponge

Good evening readers, not much for you all tonight as I didn’t really do much for once, not feeling real well. Aimee took the dogs to Saint Joris this morning for a long walk while I tried to lay back down and get some rest but I am one of those people who can’t sleep during the day. About the only thing I did today was to go with Aimee on a one hour bike ride on the road. It was a very easy ride but we wanted to do something as her race is coming up on Sunday.

Here’s yet another shot from Bonaire. This is our friend Scott from Rapid City, South Dakota shooting some video of a beautiful Azure Vase Sponge at O’l Blue. Scott and Tammi are the new owners of Black Hills Scuba www.blackhillsscuba.com and can get you guys certified to dive with me in just a few weeks, then you can head on down for some fun. Please stop in and tell Scott and Tammi I sent you and you would like to see some of that beautiful video he took while diving with me underwater. I told them they should put an add in the paper for all of you to go out and watch the video I think you would really enjoy it. And while on the diving subject you know how I am always talking about our favorite coffee (Highlander Groog) from Dark Canyon Coffee, well the owner Lori and her daughter are starting diving classes with Scott tomorrow and we hope to see them sometime soon after here in Curacao!! How cool is that, once you take the course once you won’t have to do it again, it’s money well spent.

It’s off to bed, no rain, just more heat!! I am diving with Sea Lions tomorrow morning out in the open ocean so I still need to get my gear ready. Bye guys, Barry

Row Pore Rope Sponge, Aplysina Cauliformis, Bonaire

barry — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:47:42 +0000

Rope Sponge

Hi folks, here’s another fun shot from the dive site called Red Beryl in Bonaire. This is an incredible display of what is probably a very old and apparently a very healthy outcrop of Row Pore Rope Sponges. Before I even snapped a photo I just sat back and tried to take it all in, I was really quite shocked at how massive this sponge was. This rope sponge was also home to hundreds of tiny fish and who knows how many cool creatures must be under that thing as well. There’s a big parrotfish floating on his side over to the left above the sponge and he was being cleaned by some smaller fish, it was pretty cool. Again the best thing about diving in Bonaire is the wide variety of treasures to be found and every single dive site I really love that place!

Nothing else worth reporting tonight, we both worked and it was scorching hot! Thanks for keeping in touch, you guys are wonderful, see you tomorrow, Barry

Leonora’s Reef in Bonaire, Orange and Yellow Sponges

barry — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:55:42 +0000

Bonaire Reef Scene

Good evening friends, here’s yet another beautiful reef scene from Bonaire. This was taken on the day I went with Scott and his group on a boat to the tiny island of Klein Bonaire. The dive site is called Leonora’s Reef named after one of the many girlfriends of Captain Don who named almost all the sites in Bonaire. This spectacular sponge cluster was found almost directly under the boat and if you visit there sometime soon there is a giant seahorse 20 feet away at the same depth to the left, see if you can find him! I highly recommend any new readers taking a boat trip or two to Klein Bonaire it’s just filled with great stuff. These sponges here are very plain looking underwater, if fact they are green but hit them with some flash and “Bammo” you have instant color. A big thanks again to Scott and Tammi for setting me up with this boat dive, I had a blast and took so many great reef scene photos and some even have Scott in the background.

Today was crazy busy. I first took the dogs to Saint Joris for some trail building and playing in the sand and water and after two hours I carted two very muddy and sandy dogs back home. I then raced over to a friends house to help them paint the inside of their new house. The walls were painted pink and our job was to try and cover that terrible color, it took layer after layer of white to achieve this goal but slowly it got done. I then went back home at around 3:00 and met Aimee who got off work early. Her and I took off on a fun one hour bike ride, half on the road and half on the dirt, it was a lot of fun. We are now sitting here watching the last episode of Life on Mars and then off to bed.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend, Barry