WORLD-FIRST RESTORATION TRIAL
APOLLO
MARINE PARK
Rebuilding deep-water sponge gardens 80 metres beneath the Southern Ocean.
01 / MISSION BRIEF
A recovery system
for the deep seabed.
In 2025, cultivated marine sponges were deployed with artificial habitat in Apollo Marine Park, 12 nautical miles off Apollo Bay. The trial tests how biology and engineered substrate can accelerate recovery at a depth where restoration has rarely been attempted.
Explore Apollo Marine Park
Explore real survey photographs and recorded camera locations from the April 2026 survey. Mat group labels are provisional, rather than official installation IDs.
INTERACTIVE MISSION / APOLLO
Restore the deep-water frontier.
A world-first trial rehabilitating sponge gardens 12 nautical miles offshore at a depth of 80 metres, combining cultivated sponges, engineered habitat and underwater-drone monitoring.
Help OBT restore deep-water sponge habitat by guiding a seeded mat to the seafloor, 80 metres below.
GREAT SOUTHERN REEF ATLAS
64 mats. Southern reef sponges.
Select a mat to explore photographic references from Port Phillip and southern Australian reefs. Nine photo-backed profiles are shown; this illustrative array does not identify the sponges on the Apollo installation. Depth labels describe reference habitats.
Taxonomy and depth information is compiled from the Port Phillip Bay Taxonomic Toolkit, Museums Victoria, Parks Victoria and southern Australian field records. Genus-level and museum-morphotype records are labelled where species-level identification is unavailable; descriptive field labels are used where no established common name exists.
03 / FROM DEPTH TO RESTORATION
Collect
Source sponge material from deep-water communities near the restoration area.
Cultivate
Use fragmentation techniques at SeaGen’s Phillip Island hatchery—one sponge can yield more than 50 clones.
Deploy
Install cultivated sponges with stable habitat structures at 80 metres.
Monitor
Use underwater drones and repeat surveys to track survival and biodiversity.
FILMS FROM THE FIELD
The Apollo story.
Seabed Restoration and Enhancement Project
A short introduction to the Apollo trial.
Watch on YouTube ↗WHY SPONGE GARDENS MATTER
Small animals.
System-scale impact.
HABITAT
Create three-dimensional shelter for fish, crustaceans and invertebrates.
FILTRATION
Process seawater, nutrients and organic matter at ecosystem scale.
RESILIENCE
Support biodiverse seabed communities through environmental change.
FISHERIES
Provide nursery habitat that can contribute to healthy marine food webs.
MISSION PARTNERS
OPERATING DEPTH
80 m
Apollo Marine Park
HABITAT MATERIAL
120 t
Limestone deployed
SPECIES CULTIVATED
100+
Marine sponge species