Nine New Deep-Sea Sponges Found Off Alaska

NOAA has identified nine new deep-sea sponge species in the Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands, raising Alaska's known count to 232. The specimens came from yearly bottom-trawl surveys — nets dragged along the seafloor — including samples from 2012. Findings appear in two papers, with DNA barcodes, short genetic tags for identification, mapped for each species.