JURASSIC REEF FOUND BETWEEN THE BALEARICS AND VALENCIA

Scientists from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography, Oceana (the marine conservationists) and the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) have discovered a silica reef formed from “rock sponges” similar to those which existed some 150 million years ago and which would be threatened by plans to prospect for hydrocarbons in the sea between the Balearic Islands and Valencia.
The discovery, reported in the scientific journal PLoS One, is of a unique reef that had been thought to have been extinct for millions of years and which is some 750 metres deep by the top of a small underwater mountain between Ibiza and Valencia where there are plans for the drilling of oil.
The sponge species had only been known of in the Atlantic, so its discovery makes it the first in the Mediterranean.
One of the scientists, Manuel Maldonado from the CSIC, who has been leading the research, says that understanding the causes that led to the development of the reef in the Mediterranean will help in explaining reasons for the disappearance of sponges from the Jurassic period, one that occurred about the same time as that of dinosaurs.
Silica reefs, created by sponges rather than corals, were common in the Jurassic period.
While they were once believed to have been extinct, in 1987 a reef - made up of “glass sponges” - was found 200 metres deep off the Pacific coastline of Canada. The second reef, the one that has now been discovered between the Balearics and the mainland, is even rarer since the majority of “rock sponges”  species became extinct.
It had been thought that relatively few species now survived and were confined to deep tropical and temperate waters but without the capacity to form reefs.
Co-author of the study and research director at Oceana, Ricardo Aguilar, says that this is an “an exceptional find”, one that urgently requires protection from plans for prospecting. While Spain has recently taken an important step in increasing marine protection zones, further efforts were needed, he argues, in order to meet minimum European and international objectives.
The discovery was made using the Oceana Ranger robot submarine which has been filming and collecting information about the reef as well as other sponges and species such as deep-water crabs and conger eels.