It is probably this 2.5 meter (8.2 feet) diameter giant that was a tourist attraction for scuba divers visiting Curaçao in the Caribbean in the early 1990s. Unfortunately frequent touching by scuba ...

MIAMI — There’s a turf war going under the waters off the Florida Keys, a battle for no less than dominance of dying coral-reef tracts. It’s sponge versus seaweed, a matchup that for obvious reasons ...

When most people think of sponges, they think of squishy, soap-filled kitchen sponges, or perhaps the graceful barrel sponges that grow around coral reefs. But in the dark depths of the ocean, some ...

Winter diving in South Florida always brings a new perspective, especially when you head out Jupiter Inlet on a cloudy day right into bumpy seas. This day would bring us closer to a problem. Amid the ...

University of North Carolina researcher Lindsey Deignan helped study giant barrel sponges off Key Largo. A new study found the sponges have increased by 122 percent over the last 12 years. JR Pawlik ...

A mysterious disease is sweeping through the barrel sponges off Broward and Palm Beach counties, killing off iconic reef species that can live for hundreds of years and grow to a height of 5 feet.

CEBU, Philippines — Some barrel sponges had been damaged in Cebu City due to the careless throwing of anchors by fishermen. This was bared by the Coastal Resource Management Unit under the Office of ...