A guide to the deep-water sponges of - NMFS Scientific Publications ...

45. Clathria (Clathria) barleei (Bowerbank, 1866)
Description. This sponge is elongated and massive. It
is irregularly ramified with a corrugated surface; oscula
are flush with the surface. Diameter is to 15 cm. Color
in life is orange-brown.
Skeletal structure. Dermal styles (270–360 × 3–6 µm)
have acanthose heads. There are choanosomal smooth
styles (420–540 × 18–35 µm), isochelae (16–20 µm), and
toxa (130–720 µm).
Zoogeographic distribution. Uncommon. In Alaska
– central Aleutian Islands. Elsewhere – Arctic Ocean
(Barents Sea near Murmansk, Russia) and Northeast
Atlantic Ocean (from Ireland to France and Norway).
Habitat. In Alaska – attached to small cobbles and pebbles
in generally low-relief (i.e., flat-bottomed) habitat
at depths between 150 and 160 m. Elsewhere – reported
at depths between 72 and 440 m and temperatures between
1 and 4.2° C.
Remarks. Specimens from the Northeast Atlantic
are described as flabellate with a characteristic honeycombed
surface of a different color (Van Soest and
Stone, 1986). The spicule complement (types and size
61
ranges) of this specimen conforms perfectly to Clathria
barleei so we assume it to be another growth form of the
same species in the Pacific Ocean. Van Soest and Stone
(1986) report this species from the Arctic to the west
coasts of Ireland and France so a circumpolar distribution
seems possible.
Photo. 1) Specimen collected at a depth of 155 m in
the central Aleutian Islands. Grid marks are 1 cm 2 .