Anyone else ever have the pleasure of watching sponges / coral spawn?

[bruehlt]

I remember some time back - not sure if it was the BBC's blue planet, or just some show on Discovery about sponges and coral spawning. I thought they said it only happens one time a year.

Well, we went to Bimini for the 4th of July - and was privy to witness this blessed event!! It was AMAZING to see this happening! Anyone else have any experiences with this?

 

[theskull]

Yes. Saw it last year at the Flower Gardens sanctuary off Texas. Was amazing.

theskull

 

[drbill]

I saw brown urchins broadcast spawn in the Sea of Cortez. Check out this pix in my newspaper column:

http://www.starthrower.org/products/DDDB/DDDB_000-049/DDDB_030 sex in the underwater world.htm

Dr. Bill

 

[paolov]

witnessed coral spawning twice. though haven't seen sponges spawning but i did see sponges regrowing after being cut off.

nice pics Dr. Bill and article. and on "Zero Population Growth." well IMHO population growth is not the problem it is the tipping of the scales , so to speak, of the LAW of NAture, where only the fitess survive (the hospitals) is where the ecological balance in homo sapiens has been disturbed.

 

[drbill]

Certainly raise a good point, Paolo.

 

[bruehlt]

I have a few photos I'll post later if I remember - they aren't as good as those urchine photos, but they are cool!

 

[Rick Murchison]

I was diving on a site near Red Slave (Bonaire) a few years back when I spotted a tube sponge spawning - looked like it was smoking - very cool. The next thing I knew the visibility on the entire reef had plummeted from its usual 60-80 feet down to about 15-20 feet as all the tube sponges joined in the group spawning event.
I didn't have a camera on that dive... sniff ... :06:
Very impressive.
Rick

 

[Spoon]

i have only had the pleasure of witnessing this on tv i would jump into the oppurtunity of seeing this with my own eyes.