<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; ">Hi All,<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span">I want to get the communities suggestions/advice on a widespread and ongoing mortality event that we are witnessing on deep reefs in the Marine Conservation District (MCD), St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands (see posted map 'west mcd-octnov07.jpg', directions below, Area where mortality has been found in box [excluding point 52]). I can't post pictures to CDHC, so I have uploaded the files to xdrive, an online sharing program. They can be accessed at:</SPAN></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><A href="http://plusxdrive.com/u/1731367875/837505790yUsUshgXGiJ3vcVUXsW">http://plus.xdrive.com/u/1731367875/837505790yUsUshgXGiJ3vcVUXsW</A> </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Folder: 'MyPhotos': 'West MCD Mortality Oct07'</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Unfortunately, you will need to create an x-drive account for free.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span">Background: Our research team is involved in a habitat validation survey of multibeam imagery from this MPA. This area south of St. Thomas has high coral cover (30-50%) reefs, nearly unbroken over dozens of square kilometers. All reefs are greater than 30 meters deep, and are dominated by plating corals in the <I>Montastraea annularis</I> species complex. The area has been a no-take marine reserve since 1999 and there is very little conceivable local anthropogenic pressure. Our surveys consist of NITROX or closed circuit rebreather dives onto predicted habitat strata at random, predetermined GPS points. We are deploying 30 x 4 m belt transects to assess fish and other motile resources, video transects along the same transect (but only 10m in length) to assess benthic cover, and coral health assessments (line intercept) for as many corals on the transect as possible before we kill ourselves (about 20-40 corals).</SPAN></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span">Problem: There are signs of high prevalence recent mortality in some of the reef areas we have been sampling. This mortality is mostly concentrated in "back reef" areas behind the main outer reef rise before the shelf edge. Coral reefs in this area are typically formed of pedestals and small pinnacles that are either flat over the area (see photo StT-MCD P119-Oct9-07 - 15jpg, white areas are mortality) or anastomose to form rises and valleys. White plague or plague-like incidence is common on corals in these high density reef areas, however, the signs of this mortality are like nothing I have ever seen before. Coral appears to be degrading and sloughing from multiple points of the colony at once (StT-MCD P119-Oct9-07 - [11, 14, 19, 22, and 26].jpg). The degraded portions are dead, not bleached (although there is also strange, granular bleaching occurring at low prevalence throughout the MCD, see StT-MCD P119-Oct9-07 - 17.jpg). There is a lot of Schizothrix associated with these areas, although it is unclear if this is contributing to the mortality or simply feeding of nutrients released from degrading tissue. The mortality is widespread within areas and over at least a square kilometer (StT-MCD P119-Oct9-07 - 30.jpg, the yellow thingy in the upper left quadrant of the photo is a diver [ignore the curvilinear transect]. All the white bits in the picture represent recent mortality [sorry a little dark]. We have seen this mortality, to varying degrees, at four sites that range over a square kilometer).</SPAN></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Fuel for the mystery: This area is over 15 km from the shoreline of St. Thomas, and so should be fairly buffeted from nearshore impacts. It has been a no-take MPA for almost 10 years. We are experiencing +0.6°C anomaly and there is a bleaching watch. Upwelling, via internal waves, occurs onto these reefs and is more intense and the variability higher during the warmest sea seawater months (now) when the water column is more stratified. However, the minimum temp doesn't get below 26°C, which should be quite comfy for coral. This may be an area of slow current, and we deployed an ADCP, fluorometer, and temp. probe today.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>While I don't know if anyone can shed light on the process causing this mortality, I wonder if anyone has seen anything similar and might there be any suggestions as to what could cause this type of mortality.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Thanks!</DIV><DIV>Tyler</DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span"><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Tyler B. Smith, Ph.D.</DIV>Center for Marine and Environmental Studies<DIV>University of the Virgin Islands</DIV><DIV>2 John Brewers Bay</DIV><DIV>St. Thomas, USVI 00802</DIV><DIV>USA</DIV><DIV>office: 340-693-1394</DIV><DIV>fax: 340-693-1385</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN> </DIV><BR></SPAN></DIV></BODY></HTML>