Environment✓ Verified

Blobby chicken kidney sponges clean dirty water surprisingly well

Reported byPopular Science ↗·Sourced by Goodlede

What backs it

Scientists in Spain tested five sponge species in a polluted Mediterranean port (Marina Palamós) between 2024 and 2025, transplanting 42 sponges onto artificial reefs. The chicken kidney sponge (Chondrosia reniformis) not only survived in the degraded harbor but thrived and reproduced, demonstrating it can filter heavy metals, bacteria, viruses, and organic particles while improving water quality.

Worth noting

Unfortunate name, but this is an early-stage field trial is encouraging; scaling to harbor-wide remediation would require further testing.

Notable but earlyModerate✓ Verified

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