British Columbia’s coastal waters are home to one of the most stunning marine features on the planet: glass sponge reefs. They were thought to have gone extinct 60 million years ago – but then geological scientists found some near Haida Gwaii in the late 1980s. When paleontologist Manfred Krautter of the University of Stuttgart in Germany heard of their discovery, he said, “It was like finding a living dinosaur.” They’ve since been found in the Salish Sea (Georgia Strait and Puget Sound). Although glass sponges are found in other parts of the world, Canada’s Pacific coastal waters are the only place they’ve been discovered growing in reefs.
The name may conjure small and delicate structures clinging to rocks, but glass sponge reefs are actually very large. Those in Hecate Strait cover more than 1,000 square kilometres of seabed and can reach 21 metres high – slightly taller than the Great Sphinx of Giza. With an estimated age of 9,000 years, the reefs are older than the Sphinx, too!
The rocky seabed and glacial history of coastal BC is ideally suited for these magnificent structures. Besides the cold water and low light, sponges need a strong surface to stick to, and the rich material left behind by glaciers help their development. In turn, the reefs provide habitat for rockfish, prawns, crab, and other bottom-dwelling sea creatures.
The “glass” of the glass sponge is actually made from silica, put together in such an efficient structure that researchers suggest it be used to improve design for construction and fibre-optic technology.
The good news for these rare reefs is that Fisheries and Oceans Canada is in the final stages of establishing a marine protected area (MPA) in Hecate Strait, and recently closed fisheries on reefs in Howe Sound and the Strait of Georgia. The bad news is that activities such as fishing and laying cables will be allowed in the proposed protected area, which could damage the reefs; and the area is not part of a coherent strategy to look after oceans.
A well-designed marine protected area does much more than protect a single species; it makes ocean ecosystems more diverse and better able to recover and adapt to human pressures, including providing resiliency against climate change. Research shows that the most effective MPAs are networked, large, well-enforced, and have no-take zones for fishing.
Although steps to immediately protect this globally significant ecosystem are helpful, plans to allow fishing immediately adjacent to and above them shows a narrow purpose and lack of consideration for the broader ecosystem. A comprehensive plan – like the one recently agreed to by the province of BC and 18 coastal First Nations [Marine Planning Partnership for the North Pacific Coast] is a better way forward.
It’s been almost two decades since Canada committed to establishing a network of MPAs covering 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas. Currently, less than three per cent of BC’s coastal waters have any kind of protection, and almost all of them allow fishing. While proposals to protect the reef structures get us closer to meeting the 10 per cent target, the coherent planning necessary to provide useful protection on an ecosystem level is lacking. It raises the question, “Why just protect the sponges when there’s an interconnected ecosystem above and beside them?”
We have a lot to learn about these fascinatingly complex glass sponge reefs and their amazing ability to clean ocean waters and provide habitat. We need time, and the sponges need full protection, for us to begin to understand the important role they play.
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Panos Grames is a communication specialist with the David Suzuki Foundation. www.davidsuzuki.org
