New species of sponge on the Agulhas Bank named after SAEON scientist

By Albrecht Götz, SAEON Elwandle Node Tweet

In 2009 Dr Albrecht Götz, a scientist at SAEON‘s Elwandle Node, joined a scientific expedition to the Agulhas Bank aimed at assessing the role of hard substrate habitats in supporting South African fisheries resources as well as species of conservation concern.

The Agulhas Bank represents the centre of South Africa’s fishing grounds.

One target area of the survey was the Alphard Bank 80 km off the southern tip of Africa (Figure 1 left), a cluster of slender volcanic pinnacles rising from 100m to 20m under the water surface (Figure 1 right).

Figure 1: Agulhas Bank with the position of the Alphard Bank [left]; and Alphard Bank - a cluster of slender volcanic pinnacles [right]

During a diving survey on the Alphard Bank, Dr Toufiek Samaai, the leading sponge scientist in Southern Africa, noticed an unfamilliar sponge. He took a picture (see Figure 2 left) and asked his buddy-diver Dr Albrecht Götz to cut the specimen off the reef.

After closer examination in the lab, it became clear that a new species had been discovered. Three years later a scientific manuscript with a first description was published: Samaai T, Janson L and Kelly M. 2012. “New Species of Latrunculia from the Agulhas Shelf, South Africa, with Designation of a Type Species for Subgenus Biannulata (Demospongiae, Poecilosclerida, Latrunculiidae).” Zootaxa 3395: 33 – 45.

A section in this publication reads: “Etymology. Named after Dr Albrecht Götz, South African Environmental Observation Network, for assistance on the Agulhas Shelf survey.“

Figure 2: Specimen of Latrunculia gotzi that was cut off the reef to serve as holotype [left]; and ‘rediscovery’ of a specimen (white circle) during remotely operated vehicle surveys at 44m on the Alphard Bank one year later [right]

Interestingly, another specimen of this species was discovered in remotely operated vehicle footage on the Alphard Bank (see Figure 2 right). Although the footage was recorded a year after the first expedition by the same team of scientists, it was only recently (in mid-2016) that a detailed analysis of the footage revealed this second specimen of the new sponge species.

From current information Latrunculia gotzi seems to be restricted to the deeper offshore waters of the Agulhas Bank.