any other signs of bleaching in the Caribbean?

[Pam Muller]

Carolina:

I was at Cayman Brac last week; water temperature was about 28 C instead of
26, which is apparently more typical for this time of year.  I saw bleaching
similar to that Alina Szmant just reported from the Tortugas.  Pale and very
occasionally bleached Agaricia were most common; pale Montastrea spp. were
also observed.  I didn't notice any pale Porites or Acropora cervicornis,
and
didn't see any Palythoa. My dive partner commented on the way home that he
didn't see any. We did 14 dives, 5 to about 30 m; I noticed pale Agaricia on
my first dive at about 28 m.

Please note that these were casual observations; I was not collecting data.

Pamela Hallock
College of Marine Science
University of South Florida

Carolina Bastidas wrote:

> Dear coral-listers,
>
> Within the last two weeks we observed one third of the coral colonies pale
> and bleached at the venezuelan CARICOMP site of Parque Nacional Morrocoy.
> Affected colonies included species of Montrastea, Colpophyllia and Porites
> - the dominant genera in the area - between 4 and 12 meters depth.
>
> We were wondering if those observations could correspond to early signs of
> a widespread bleaching in the Caribbean or some localized phenomena. Any
> other observation?
>
> Thanks,
>
> ****************************************************
> Carolina Bastidas
> Depto. de Biología de Organismos
> Universidad Simón Bolívar
> Apdo. 89000 Caracas 1080
> Venezuela
>
> Fax:    58-212-9063046
> Tel:    58-212-9063415
> cbastidas at usb.ve
>
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