laverda
Well-known member
I got this cool email yesterday and had to share it! Just goes to prove the hobby can do some good. Here is the original news item my wife had sent me, from which I contacted Steve Coles.-> http://starbulletin.com/2005/12/10/news/story03.html
Steve
Hi Steve,
Just thought you would like to know that your suggestion has led to what I think may be an effective method of controlling the sponge, at least in areas of new arrival and/or low abundance. After consideration, I thought it might be productive to devise a way of injecting air into the sponge, which I've done by putting a robber tiped release valve on the end of a diving low pressure hose, and this fits perfectly on to a 30 ml syringe with a bone necropsy needle about 10 cm long. This is ideal for penetrating the sponge down within the interstices of the finger coral that it's overgrowing. I tried blasing the sponge using this device on a couple of quadrats in early March and was quite astounded a month and a half later to find virtually all sponge gone on one quadrat and very little remaining on another. I'm sure that minimal retreatment will eliminate the sponge entirely, with little collateral damage to the coral. I did these air exposures after some preliminary mechanical removal of sponge surface layers, and now we will try air blasting alone to see if it's as effective.
So thanks very nuch for the suggestion. I wonder if you could give me your name, affiliation and how you learned of our project? I reported on this at the International Sponge Symposium in Buzos, Brazil last week, where many sponge experts were impressed with the originality of the idea of using air to remove sponge in a controlled manner. We have a quarterly HCRI report meeting tomorrow, at which I'd like to give you proper credit for it.
Best regards,
Steve Coles
S. L. Coles, Ph. D.
Research Zoologist
Bishop Museum, Department of Natural Science
1525 Bernice St.
Honolulu, HI 96817 US
Ph. (808)847-8256 Fax (808) 847-8252
-----Original Message-----
From: LAVERDA@aol.com [mailto:LAVERDA@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 3:15 PM
To: Steve Coles
Subject: Re: Sponge threatens coral in bay
Steve
Maybe a fine stream of small bobbles for a couple of min. I hope it helps! I will not bother you any further.
Steve
Hadn't thought of it that way, but I'm still sceptical that a brief jet of air on the surface while the sponge is under water would have a long lasting effect. Still, worth a try, especially perhaps following mechanical removal.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Steve
-----Original Message-----
From: LAVERDA@aol.com [mailto:LAVERDA@aol.com]
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2005 9:03 AM
To: Steve Coles
Subject: Re: Sponge threatens coral in bay
In a message dated 12/12/2005 10:19:50 AM Pacific Standard Time, slcoles@bishopmuseum.org writes:
No, I don't think so. Th sponge is so firmly attached that the only way we've found to remove it so far is to carefully scrape and pick, a very time consuming process. If a jet of air were strong enough to remove it, it would tear away any coral that was near the sponge.
Steve
I thought exposure to air killed most sponges. So it would not take much pressure at all.
Steve
Steve
Hi Steve,
Just thought you would like to know that your suggestion has led to what I think may be an effective method of controlling the sponge, at least in areas of new arrival and/or low abundance. After consideration, I thought it might be productive to devise a way of injecting air into the sponge, which I've done by putting a robber tiped release valve on the end of a diving low pressure hose, and this fits perfectly on to a 30 ml syringe with a bone necropsy needle about 10 cm long. This is ideal for penetrating the sponge down within the interstices of the finger coral that it's overgrowing. I tried blasing the sponge using this device on a couple of quadrats in early March and was quite astounded a month and a half later to find virtually all sponge gone on one quadrat and very little remaining on another. I'm sure that minimal retreatment will eliminate the sponge entirely, with little collateral damage to the coral. I did these air exposures after some preliminary mechanical removal of sponge surface layers, and now we will try air blasting alone to see if it's as effective.
So thanks very nuch for the suggestion. I wonder if you could give me your name, affiliation and how you learned of our project? I reported on this at the International Sponge Symposium in Buzos, Brazil last week, where many sponge experts were impressed with the originality of the idea of using air to remove sponge in a controlled manner. We have a quarterly HCRI report meeting tomorrow, at which I'd like to give you proper credit for it.
Best regards,
Steve Coles
S. L. Coles, Ph. D.
Research Zoologist
Bishop Museum, Department of Natural Science
1525 Bernice St.
Honolulu, HI 96817 US
Ph. (808)847-8256 Fax (808) 847-8252
-----Original Message-----
From: LAVERDA@aol.com [mailto:LAVERDA@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 3:15 PM
To: Steve Coles
Subject: Re: Sponge threatens coral in bay
Steve
Maybe a fine stream of small bobbles for a couple of min. I hope it helps! I will not bother you any further.
Steve
Hadn't thought of it that way, but I'm still sceptical that a brief jet of air on the surface while the sponge is under water would have a long lasting effect. Still, worth a try, especially perhaps following mechanical removal.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Steve
-----Original Message-----
From: LAVERDA@aol.com [mailto:LAVERDA@aol.com]
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2005 9:03 AM
To: Steve Coles
Subject: Re: Sponge threatens coral in bay
In a message dated 12/12/2005 10:19:50 AM Pacific Standard Time, slcoles@bishopmuseum.org writes:
No, I don't think so. Th sponge is so firmly attached that the only way we've found to remove it so far is to carefully scrape and pick, a very time consuming process. If a jet of air were strong enough to remove it, it would tear away any coral that was near the sponge.
Steve
I thought exposure to air killed most sponges. So it would not take much pressure at all.
Steve
