Benthic communities in the deep sea rely on food imported from elsewhere because there is no local primary production in the absence of light. Instead, the required nutrients arrive either by sinking from the photic zone or via lateral currents. Food is therefore often limiting in the deep ocean, yet in some locations, dense communities manage to flourish. Sur Ridge is a deep submarine ridge (800-1700 m depth) off the coast of Big Sur, California that supports dense gardens of corals and sponges. The impact of these organisms as foundation species is clear, but what affects their distributions is not fully resolved. To investigate this, we focused on sponges and studied pumping activity and metabolic rate at different locations of Sur Ridge. We measured in situ respiration using optical oxygen sensors. Activity levels, as pumping rates, were measured using a deep-sea particle imaging velocimetry system (DeepPIV) deployed by remotely operated vehicle. Measurements were performed across a range of species growing under different ambient oxygen and depth regimes. Respiration varied between species but bulk oxygen removal was similar across depths. DeepPIV revealed that the glass sponges of Sur Ridge pump many times their own body volume of water each day, with pumping rates dependent on osculum size. Pumping rates of some species, such as those of the subfamily Acanthascinae, were rapid whereas excurrent flow rates from others, such as Staurocalyptus sp., were much slower. These species do co-occur, but each dominates in a different part of Sur Ridge, suggesting niche partitioning and species-dependent adaptation to different water conditions.