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The water coolers of the deep sea. 💧

The fingered goblet sponge (Heterochone calyx) is one of the largest sponges on the Pacific coast. Their funnel-shaped bodies can grow up to two meters (nearly seven feet) tall and fan out two meters (nearly seven feet) across. Remarkably, the skeleton of this massive animal is made of microscopic slivers of silica glass called spicules. As the sponge grows, the glass spicules fuse together, creating rigid joints in between. This intricate three-dimensional structure remains intact long after the tissues die.

Fingered goblet sponges support bustling communities of life. Much like coral reefs in tropical waters or the old-growth forests on land, countless critters make their home in sponge gardens.

Small snailfishes and shrimp seek refuge from predators inside a cavernous sponge, hiding from predators patrolling nearby sand channels. Crabs and feather stars climb up the sponge towers to feed in the current or release their eggs for maximum dispersal. Thousands more unseen animals thrive inside the nooks and crannies of the sponge.

Increased demand for metallic minerals could lead to mining in pristine areas of the deep sea, harming animals like Heterochone. Mining equipment plowing across the seafloor could damage sponges, and the plume of sediment from mining waste could clog their filtering mechanism. Life moves at a slower pace in the ocean’s frigid depths. It can take years for Heterochone and other deep-sea sponges to recover from disturbance, in turn threatening all the animals that depend on sponges. Decisions we make in our everyday lives can affect all animals, even in out-of-sight places like the deep sea.