About Us:
The Sponge Guide is made possible by NSF Biological Oceanography Program grants (OCE-0095724, 0550468, 1029515) and the Frank Hawkins Kenan Distinguished Professorship trust to Joseph Pawlik, University of North Carolina Wilmington and by by projects 12064, 23580, 23590, 26594, 30442 and 36395 of the Caribbean Campus of Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and by a 2013-14 Fulbright Visiting Professor Grant, to Sven Zea.
This video received an Honorable Mention (4th of 10 finalists) in the Ocean 180 Video Challenge, a contest to promote the public accessibility of published science, sponsored by COSEE Florida and funded by the National Science Foundation. The challenge is to present a published scientific study in 180 seconds at the 6th-grade level. The 10 video finalists will be judged by over 30,000 middle school students in over 1,800 schools throughout the US and 13 other countries.
Sven Zea, Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Caribbean campus, Instituto de Estudios en Ciencias del Mar – CECIMAR), serves as the official sponge taxonomist. Please contact him with any identification questions (sezeas@unal.edu.co).
Database and guide design is done by Timothy Henkel with University of South Florida, St. Petersburg campus.
Photographers and Field Collection:
- Andia Chaves-Fonnegra
- Cristina Díaz
- Chris Finelli
- Micha Ilan
- Tse-Lynn Loh
- Susana Lopez-Legentil
- Tadeusz Molinski
- Scott Nichols
- Joseph Pawlik
- Monica Puyana
- Sven Rohde
- Jan Vicente
- Tim Wong
- Sven Zea
Image Use:
Zea, S., Henkel, T.P., and Pawlik, J.R. 2025. The Sponge Guide: a picture guide to Caribbean sponges. 4th Edition. Available online at www.spongeguide.org. Accessed on: 2025-06-20