![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/glass-sponge.jpg\")
Glass sponge. Aiden Conners\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Two hundred million years<\/a>\u00a0ago, glass sponge reefs could be found across the Tethys Sea: a prehistoric ocean located where central Europe is found today.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cGlass sponge<\/a>\u00a0reefs were thought to have gone extinct about 40 million years ago,\u201d explains NOAA on its\u00a0website<\/a>. \u201cTo date, these are the only such reefs known to exist.\u201d<\/p>\n Glass sponge reefs comprise just three different species \u2013\u00a0Heterochone calyx,\u00a0Farrea occa, and\u00a0Aphrocallistes vastus\u00a0\u2013 which can merge their bodies together to form a reef. <\/p>\n According to\u00a0UNESCO World Heritage Centre<\/a>, \u201crather than just building on top of one another, reef-building glass sponges fuse their silica skeletons together to build a rigid but delicate framework.\u201d When the sponges die, new individuals settle on top of the framework created by the remaining skeletons, a little like an\u00a0oyster reef<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n This natural marvel in British Columbia is believed to be around 9,000 years old \u2013 that\u2019s older than Stonehenge.<\/p>\n The remarkable reef holds the Guinness World Record for the\u00a0largest concentration of glass sponge reefs<\/a>\u00a0on the planet. It covers more than 270 square miles in waters between 140m and 240m deep. At some points, the reef grows to an impressive 21 metres \u2013 that\u2019s taller than three giraffes balanced on top of one another.\u00a0<\/p>\n Like\u00a0coral reefs<\/a>, glass sponge reefs are important habitats that provide a home for many animals, including\u00a0crabs<\/a>,prawns<\/a>,\u00a0starfish<\/a>, and fish such as rockfish, herring, halibut and even sharks.<\/p>\n Perhaps surprisingly for something that has survived for thousands of years, the world\u2019s biggest glass sponge reef is not particularly resilient.<\/p>\n \u201cThese sponges are exceptionally fragile, with skeletons made of silica, or glass,\u201d says the Government of Canada on its\u00a0website<\/a>. \u201cThe ocean conditions necessary to allow such large reefs to develop are rare, and the fragility of the reefs makes them vulnerable to damage from human activity.\u201d<\/p>\n These incredibly delicate creatures can shatter easily, which can be catastrophic for the reef. \u201cThe slow growth and vulnerability of the sponges suggests that recovery from damage may take tens to several hundreds of years,\u201d says the Government of Canada.\u00a0<\/p>\n Much of the reef has already been damaged by human activities, such as bottom trawling. As well as physically damaging the sponges, this type of fishing can have other negative impacts. For example, being smothered by sediment can prevent these\u00a0filter-feeders<\/a>\u00a0from getting the nutrients they need from the water.\u00a0<\/p>\n The reefs are\u00a0protected<\/a>\u00a0but, sadly, they had already been harmed by fishing activities. \u201cOver half of the large reefs in Hecate Strait were destroyed by trawlers before fishing closures were put in place by the federal government in 2002,\u201d according to\u00a0the\u00a0IUCN<\/a>. Protections were later increased to forbid all types of fishing that put or drag nets on the seafloor from taking place within 200 metres of the reefs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Top image: Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound by DoraDalton \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Glass sponges may be one of the most peculiar creatures on the planet. These animals were one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-441599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}