| Cliona celata is lobular in shape with wart like projections on it surface. This species is commonly found in colonies and the portions of the colony showing at the surface have their projections appear as yellow in color and may be massive. They are evenly distributed on the sponge and and are inhalently seive like. Below the surface, the Cliona celata shell may look like a honeycomb.
Cliona celata is commonly referred to as boring sponge because it bores into soft limestone, using an acid digestion technique thus forming systems of interconnecting chambers within the rock. The sponge can also bore as a parasite into mollusc and barnacle shells. It is common on many of the purple hinged rock scallops that we see underwater at Race Rocks.
At Race Rocks, the boring sponge is commonly found around the Rosedale Reef area. Its exhibits prey-predator biotic association with the purple -hinge rock scallop (Hinnites giganteus) as seen in the picture above.
References:
http://web.ucs.ubc.ca/csmecher/demospon.htm
http://www.diveinfo.com/porifera
http://www.itsligo.ie/biomar/porifera/clicel.htm
Kozloff, Eugene.N, Keys to the Marine Invertebrates of Puget Sound, the San Juan Archipelago, and Adjacent Regions; University of Washington press, 1974.
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