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The Healthy Seas PodcastAuthor: Crystal DiMiceli
Join us as we dive into the depths to explore the challenges and solutions shaping the future of our seas. Hosted by Crystal DiMiceli, each episode features conversations with the people making waves in marine protection: divers, scientists, educators, business partners, and local communities.Healthy Seas is a unique alliance of NGOs and businesses working together to tackle marine litter, especially ghost fishing gear, and transform waste into opportunity through circular economy solutions. Active across 20 countries, we operate with a global mission and a local heartbeat.Through cleanups, education, innovation, and partnerships, were restoring the ocean and inspiring actionone net at a time.Backed by over a decade of impact and part of the UN Ocean Decade movement, this podcast invites listeners and companies alike to dive into a world where environmental restoration meets meaningful collaboration. Language: en-us Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it Trailer: |
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Sponges: The Quiet Animals That Clean the Ocean
Episode 27
Wednesday, 25 February, 2026
In this episode of our “Ocean’s Natural Cleaning Crew” series, marine scientist Erik Wurz reveals how sponges filter water, recycle nutrients, and quietly sustain marine lifeMost of us think of ocean protection in terms of visible action: removing nets, collecting waste, monitoring habitats. But beneath the surface, nature has its own clean-up teams: organisms that filter water, recycle nutrients, and make marine ecosystems possible.In this episode of our series on marine life that helps keep the ocean clean, we meet one of its most overlooked workers: the sponge.Marine biologist Erik Wurz (University of Helsinki) takes us into a world most people never notice: animals that can look like paper sheets, chimneys, or giant vases, quietly pumping water through their bodies day and night.A football-sized sponge, he explains, could filter up to 30,000 liters of seawater per day, removing bacteria, particles, and dissolved matter and releasing ultra-clean water back into the ocean. But their role goes far beyond filtration.By transforming microscopic organic material into edible particles, sponges effectively kick-start marine food webs, making energy available to fish, invertebrates, and entire ecosystems. Without them, many marine habitats would struggle to sustain life. In some parts of the deep sea, they even form vast “animal forests,” structures that provide shelter, breeding grounds, and feeding platforms for countless species.And yet, despite their importance, sponges remain largely invisible in public imagination overshadowed by more charismatic marine animals. That’s something Erik hopes to change: “I hope this podcast helps make sponges cool.”The conversation also explores how climate change, sediment disturbance, and bottom trawling can disrupt sponge ecosystems with long-term consequences for fisheries, ocean health, and even potential biomedical discoveries hidden within sponge microbiomes.If Healthy Seas teams remove debris in marine habitats, sponges do something incredibly remarkable too — continuously and silently — by filtering, recycling, and sustaining the ocean from within.This episode invites us to look again at the seabed and many other places and notice the quiet workers already keeping it alive.Healthy Seas is a marine conservation organization whose mission is to tackle the ghost fishing phenomenon and turn this waste into an opportunity for a more circular economy. They do this through clean-ups, prevention, education, and working with partners who recycle and repurpose this material. The podcast is hosted by Crystal DiMiceli.If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe, rate and review it! This helps to boost its visibility. Healthy Seas is a marine conservation organization whose mission is to tackle the ghost fishing phenomenon and turn this waste into an opportunity for a more circular economy. They do this through clean-ups, prevention, education, and working with partners who recycle and repurpose this material. The podcast is hosted by Crystal DiMiceli.
