This video was taken from a survey we did on the north side of Halkett sponge reef back in 2016.
As we were finishing our sweep we found this larger sponge laying on its side at 120ft/36m. After a closer look I decided do take another pass with the video camera.
It’s not uncommon that when a sponge reaches a larger size can tip over under it own weight, but in this case you can see it had been pulled over and then dragged about 6ft/2m across the bottom from its original location. This could indicate that it was pushed or pulled in some fashion.
One of the biggest threats to the reefs is contact from the topside, mostly from fishing gear not realizing what's below the surface and this ends up being the result.