Sea Sponges are some incredible animals. They are of colorful, species, shapes, some even are FREAKIN' CARNIVOROUS ! (In the Mediterranean sea, who knew ?). Though all this is super exciting, let me tell you why I'm all over these sponges recently. 1/17
#ArtistsvsExtinction
Probably you've heard about some stuff name "Viruses". Well. They're SUPER abundant in the Oceans as well. Yes yes, you thought maybe "freakin bats, pangolin and shits" but did you think about the vast oceans ? 2/17
But how come the whole sea isn't pure death and desolation environment if they're so numerous ? Well, a lot of factors actually. The animals/organisms they infect can all decline, the ocean temperature might change and kill them etc. BUT ! 3/17
They get preyed upon as well ! It seems to be more of an "interference" between the Virus and the hosts though. Like. 4/17
Jean Jacques the virus is happily going to infect Johnny but a passing dog catches the disease by eating JJ before it ever reaches Johnny (you get the idea). And JJ dies. 5/17
The same happens in our oceans ! And that's what the team of researchers studied upon. They checked a couple of sea organisms in order to compare their "cleaning efficiency" in a controlled environment. 6/17
They gathered Sea Sponges (Breadcrumb species, really nice shapes but it looks like passed breadcrumbs indeed... or aggressive snot : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halichondria_panicea), crabs, mussels, anemones....Put them into water filled with a Virus specie and watched what happened. 7/17
And what happened was INSANELY COOL (trying to keep things objective here). 8/17
The Sponges showed to be the most efficient virus killers of the experiment. The water saw a 98% virus removal within 24 HOURS. 9/17
Like. Day 1 : 100 Virus party hard super happy
Day 2 : POUF, 2 remaining. (The others probably still partying in...a...COUGHIN haha...) 10/17
Many of the other organisms saw great efficiency as well like crabs and Oysters. but the sponges have the Palm (if I can say so). 11/17
And sure, in a natural environment, it surely is different as Virus removal by non host organisms is only one factor among many (it seems some tropical sea sponges can be less efficient than their temperate counterparts so it depends also of the species, the seasons etc). 12/17
Now all this is great but as we know, the oceans are going through some big changes right now. 13/17
Ecosystem being severely disrupted, these super virus cleaners might also decline in numbers and favor virus proliferation in the Oceans, and who knows, maybe come to us thanks to heavy fishing ? 14/17
But what if we managed to save the oceans and use artificial Cleaning farms to keep virus levels to a clear ? Reefs filled with Sea sponges, crabs and sea squirts with their ecosystems? Help the ocean life as well as keeping an eye on bacterias and viruses spread. 15/17
So I thought of what might look like a farm like this (thread cover), maybe you can recognize some of the organisms I took inspiration from ^^. 16/17

#ArtistsvsExtinction #ClimateEmergency
If you want to read the study :
https://rdcu.be/b3Agc 
by
Welsh, J.E., Steenhuis, P., de Moraes, K.R. et al. Marine virus predation by non-host organisms. Sci Rep 10, 5221 (2020).

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