Newly discovered sponge named after Monterey Bay National Marine Sancturary

By Toby Roca | Bay City News

Researchers have published the scientific description of a newly discovered sponge, Megaciella sanctuarium, which they named in honor of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary off the Central Coast of California.

Professor Tom Turner, a sponge expert from the University of California Santa Barbara, discovered Megaciella sanctuarium and 11 other previously-unknown species of sponges in the fall of 2021 during a research cruise in the Carmel Pinnacles State

Marine Reserve, which is nestled within the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

Turner named all 12 new species, several of which are considered rare or have very restricted distributions, as they were not found in similar undersea areas outside of Carmel Bay.

Aside from Megaciella sanctuarium being named after the sanctuary, Turner named one sponge species after the indigenous Rumsen people of Monterey, one after the town of Carmel, and one after nearby Point Lobos.

Turner had explored the area with Steve Lonhart, a research ecologist for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, and the two scientists have co-authored a recently published paper about their undersea discoveries.