Death ball sponge Discovered at a depth of 3,601 metres in the North Trench of the South Sandwich Islands. Specialist Javier Francisco Cristobo Rodríguez identified this new species during a 2025 expedition with Schmidt Ocean Institute. This discovery highlights the intriguing predatory strategies life employs to survive in the Earth’s most extreme trenches. Credit: ROV SuBastian/Schmidt Ocean Institute
Nothing says Hagfish Day fun like the Carnivorous ‘Death Ball’ Sponge!
Most sponges filter plankton and bacteria. But the Death Ball Sponge is a predator, a meat eater…a carnivore! It doesn’t stalk, chase, in fact, it doesn’t even take a step. Dinner comes to it.
Tiny (microscopic) hooks – sort of like Velcro – cover the sponge’s charming but deadly ping pong ball-like spheres. The hooks snag or entangle unsuspecting prey, such as crustaceans floating in the current.
Once snagged by the sponge, the prey is slowly consumed. Not great for the prey. But a pretty nifty adaptation for an animal living where food is hard to come by.
ABOUT THE PHOTO: The Carnivorous ‘Death Ball’ Sponge was discovered during the Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census, the world’s largest mission to accelerate ocean species discovery. The recent voyages mark a pivotal third year with 13 expeditions across some of the world’s most remote and least explored ocean regions, in partnership with JAMSTEC, CSIRO and the Schmidt Ocean Institute. Scientists discovered 1,121 marine species in a single year! This marks a significant step forward in efforts to document life in the world’s oceans.
This photo is exactly why WhaleTimes created and continues to celebrate Hagfish Day. Scientists estimate that up to 90% of ocean species are still undiscovered! So keep celebrating discoveries, cheering on future marine science research, and reveling in the ‘beauty of ugly’ on Hagfish day!
Just for fun, here are a couple other carnivorous sponges:
This is a carnivorous sponge. Photo Courtesy: NOAA OE, 2019 Southeastern US Deep-sea Exploration
Here’s a close look at the large (cladorhizidae) carnivorous sponge in the genus Chondrocladia Photo courtesy: NOAA-OE, Windows to the Deep 2021.
Hagfish Day Fun Fact: Sponges are in the phylum Porifera. There are about 8500 known species. Many ocean animals rely on sponges for food and homes.
Back to WhaleTimes’ Hagfish Day Celebration
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