Abbandoned Fishing Net Colonized by Sponges

During a dive to a beautiful cliff full of life we ​​came across an old lost nylon fishing net; certainly due to a grasp made by the fisherman. The network has been there for a long time, in fact nylon takes many years to degrade, like the various plastic materials. As you can see the sponges have begun to colonize the network and slowly they will completely incorporate it. Rete da Pesca Abbandonata Colonizzata da Spugne Fishnet intotheblue.it

Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera are a basal Metazoa (animal) clade as a sister of the Diploblats. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through them, consisting of jelly-like mesohyl sandwiched between two thin layers of cells. The branch of zoology that studies sponges is known as spongiology.

Sponges have unspecialized cells that can transform into other types and that often migrate between the main cell layers and the mesohyl in the process. Sponges do not have nervous, digestive or circulatory sistems. Instead, most rely on maintaining a constant water flow through their bodies to obtain food and oxygen and to remove wastes. Sponges were first to branch off the evolutionary tree from the common ancestor of all animals, making them the sister group of all other animals.

Sponges are similar to other animals in that they are multicellular, heterotrophic, lack cell walls and produce sperm cells. Unlike other animals, they lack true tissues and organs. Some of them are radially symmetrical, but most are asymmetrical. The shapes of their bodies are adapted for maximal efficiency of water flow through the central cavity, where the water deposits nutrients and then leaves through a hole called the osculum. Many sponges have internal skeletons of spongin and/or spicules (skeletal-like fragments) of calcium carbonate or silicon dioxide. All sponges are sessile aquatic animals, meaning that they attach to an underwater surface and remain fixed in place (i.e., do not travel). Although there are freshwater species, the great majority are marine (salt-water) species, ranging in habitat from tidal zones to depths exceeding 8,800 m. Rete da Pesca Abbandonata Colonizzata da Spugne Fishnet intotheblue.it

Although most of the approximately 5,000–10,000 known species of sponges feed on bacteria  and other microscopic food in the water, some host photosynthesizing  microorganisms as endosymbionts, and these alliances often produce more food and oxygen than they consume. A few species of sponges that live in food-poor environments have evolved as carnivores that prey mainly on small crustaceans.

(extract from Wikipedia)