Bleach and spawning report from Bonaire.

[John Ware]

Dear Listers,

I was on Bonaire from 12 to 19 September.  

I observed substantial spawning of Montastrea annularis and M. faveolata
on 12 Sept.  Other divers observed spawning of Acropora palmata and
Eusmilia fastigiata on the same evening.  The spawning I observed began
at about 2155 local time and ended about 3 minutes later.  All corals in
the visible area seemed to spawn at nearly the same time.  
We observed minor spawning of various M. annularis forms on 13 Sept.

We also observed bleaching of nearly 100% of all Agaricia lamarcki (?)
(only 1 not bleaching of several hundred seen) at all depths from about
25 feet to well over 100 feet.  No other bleaching was observed but all
forms of M. annularis had pale-appearing individuals.  Water temperature
was 30 oC from the surface to about 100 ft and 29.5 oC below that.

Would love to be there another 2 weeks as I suspect bleaching will
increase.

John.
-- 
     ***********************************************************
     *                                                         *
     *                   John R. Ware, PhD                     *
     *                       President                         *
     *                    SeaServices, Inc.                    *
     *                 19572 Club House Road                   *
     *              Gaithersburg, MD, 20886, USA               *
     *                     301 987-8507                        *
     *                    jware at erols.com                      *
     *                                                         *
     *                                     _                   *
     *    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~    *
     *                                   _|__                  *
     *                                  | _ |                  *
     *           _______________________|   |______            *
     *        |\/__     Sea Services, Inc.         \           *
     *        |/\__________________________________/           *
     ***********************************************************