Nine new deep-sea sponge species confirmed in Gulf of Alaska and Aleutians

Nine sponge species new to science have been described from the Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands, raising Alaska's known sponge count to 232, NOAA Fisheries said Thursday. One species was unique enough to warrant an entirely new genus. Another belongs to a group never before seen outside the tropics. NOAA calls the Aleutians a global sponge biodiversity hotspot and classifies dense sponge communities as essential fish habitat for juvenile rockfish and king crabs.

The specimens came from Alaska Fisheries Science Center bottom trawl surveys dating to 2012. Two papers describe the finds. A 2026 Zootaxa paper covering five of the species credited Sean Rooney, Helmut Lehnert and Meredith Everett.

"It gets very exciting when you realize you're looking at a species that has never been observed before," Lehnert said.

Genetic barcodes from the specimens went into GenBank, building a library for detecting species and estimating abundance through environmental DNA sampling. "Sponge DNA can be tricky because they filter feed," Everett said.