[Coral-List] SCTLD on Bonaire

Tue Jul 25 14:53:25 UTC 2023

Hi All,

Where has it been proven that foureye butterflyfish are vectors of SCTLD?
The Noonan and Childress (2020) paper that described the relationship
between foureye butterflyfish and SCTLD specifically does not conclude that
foureye butterflyfish are a vector. It  shows a strong association between
the fish and the disease, but as the saying goes, correlation does not
equal causation. When the disease started, foureyes showed up to feed on
the diseased coral tissue. When the disease disappeared, so did the fish. I
saw the same thing in St. Lucia in 2019.

The key sentence in the Noonan and Childress paper is "If butterflyfish
were facilitating the spread of SCTLD, we would expect to find faster rates
of new infection in areas with higher butterflyfish abundance, but if coral
disease is increasing butterflyfish recruitment after initial infection,
disease spread would not necessarily be related to butterflyfish
abundance". As far as I know, nobody has found that SCTLD spreads faster in
areas with high existing densities of foureye butterflyfish. Certainly,
in St. Lucia, the disease showed up at my sites before the butterflyfish. To
me it seems just as likely that the butterflyfish may assist the coral in
recovery by opportunistically feeding on the diseased polyps, as opposed to
being the cause of the spread. I agree with Alina - killing a keystone
ecological species because you think it may be spreading disease is a bad
idea.

Mark

On Tue, 25 Jul 2023 at 15:06, Alina Szmant via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> Hello Austin:
>
> Sorry to be negative, but your suggestions remind me of bringing in
> mongooses to eat the rats in Hawaii, or kill all the wolves so that there
> are more deer and moose for humans to hunt... many more examples of humans
> trying to correct human induced problems by manipulating other species that
> really back fired in the longer term. Poor butterfly fish didn't cause any
> of these problems so I don't see why they should take the fall for the
> on-going anthropogenic disasters. And spearing a few fish is not going to
> make the disease go away. Bad idea.
>
>
> Alina
>
>
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>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Coral-List <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> On Behalf Of
> Austin Bowden-Kerby via Coral-List
> Sent: Monday, July 24, 2023 3:00 PM
> To: Steve Mussman <sealab at earthlink.net>
> Cc: coral list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] SCTLD on Bonaire
>
> Dear friends dealing with SCTLD,
>
> As Four-spot Butterflyfish are now proven as a primary vector of SCTLD, I
> would consider removing these predators around pillar corals.  While this
> approach may seem reactionary and unproven to some, consider that this
> species of butterflyfish are not in the least bit endangered.  The
> precautionary principle of science should be turned on its head when
> extinction risk is involved: Guilty until proven innocent.  As the
> Dendrogyra corals are so precious, I personally would not wait for more
> data- I would assume that these fish are the primary vector, as this is
> apparently the only proven vector so far.
>
> We had a staghorn coral nursery in Roatan collapse due to a rapid tissue
> loss disease facilitated by a pair of four-eye butterflyfish way back in
> 2005, and the same problem was observed in Belize several years later.  At
> the very least, judge for yourself: monitor for the presence of the fish
> and observe their preferential feeding on diseased colony areas, and then
> record these same individuals moving and picking at healthy tissues (which
> a week later will likely be diseased).  But I personally would not wait for
> the obvious negative outcome.
>
> Perhaps overfishing of butterfly fish predators might be a factor in the
> spread of this disease in the Caribbean, and if so, the ecologically
> balanced reefs with the lowest abundance of four-eyed butterfly fish will
> retain some pillar coral colonies?
>
> Here in the Pacific, we have had horrific problems with Melon or Redfin
> Butterflyfish stripping all the tissues off of Acropora corals when we
> transplanted Acropora corals to reefs where the corals were absent, or
> present only within Stegastes farmerfish territories (the farmerfish chase
> the butterflyfish away).  We speared out the butterflyfish to good effect.
> But then we found that over-abundant Parrotfish were also a horrific
> problem, in addition to COTS.  The farmerfish were found to effectively
> chase all three of these predators away.  In spite of some negative costs
> associated with Stegastes on Acropora corals, we are now looking into using
> farmerfish as "guard dogs" to protect the corals, as we work to
> re-establish Acropora corals on ecologically imbalanced reefs.  Dead reefs
> very low in coral cover, on the other hand, do not harbor these three coral
> dependent predators, nor do they harbor diseased corals, but these reefs
> are often impacted by algal overgrowth, so small outplants fare poorly. So
> we developed new approaches using "nucleation patches" and planting corals
> to structures that quickly restore fish abundance, which in turn reboot
> natural processes (links below).
>
> Regards,
>
> Austin
>
>
> Austin Bowden-Kerby, PhD
> Corals for Conservation
> P.O. Box 4649 Samabula, Fiji Islands
> https://www.corals4conservation.org
> Publication on C4C's coral-focused climate change adaptation strategies:
> https://www.mdpi.com/2673-1924/4/1/2/pdf
> Film on our "Reefs of Hope" coral restoration for climate change adaptation
> strategies:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG0lqKciXAA
>
> https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/
> <
> https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> <
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> On Tue, Jul 25, 2023 at 3:11 AM Steve Mussman via Coral-List <
> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
>
> >
> > Hi Mel,
> >
> > I don’t know how there could be any science-based evidence that
> > disinfecting scuba equipment is slowing or preventing the spread of
> > SCTLD especially considering the fact that the specific pathogen
> > involved has yet to be identified. However, my critique of the
> > protocols affecting divers is also not founded on science. Mine is
> > just a visceral reaction based solely on how I see divers interacting
> > with infected corals and observations involving how the disinfection
> > protocols are carried out in situ. There are just too many variables
> involved for this process to inspire confidence.
> > While there is little known about the potential for scuba divers to
> > serve as vectors of coral disease, there are a number of studies like
> this one:
> > “Considering Commercial Vessels as Potential Vectors of Stony Coral
> > Tissue Disease”
> > https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.709764/full.
> >
> > Simply put, we don’t know how this disease is spreading, but I would
> > assert that we do know that it is at least reasonable to assume that
> > ships are potential vectors - therefore why all the focus on divers
> > (an untested
> > entity) while cruise ships arriving from other known-to-be-infected
> > islands are continuing to be allowed to tie up close to shore
> > virtually on top of some of Bonaire’s shallow reefs close to where the
> > disease was first detected?
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Steve
> >
> > Sent from EarthLink Mobile mail
> >
> > On 7/23/23, 9:30 PM, Melbourne Briscoe <mel at briscoe.com> wrote:
> >
> > There is a lot of discussion on the Bonaire forum of ScubaBroad about
> > the presumed futility of restricting divers in order to slow the
> > progressions of SCTLD there. Is there any evidence that this is
> > actually helpful, or is it simply a precautionary approach based on hope?
> >
> > - Mel Briscoe
> >
> > On Sun, Jul 23, 2023 at 7:55 PM Steve Mussman via Coral-List <
> > coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > (mailto:coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov)>
> > wrote:
> >
> > I have several recent photos of SCTLD infected corals from the reefs
> > of Bonaire if anyone is interested, they are available to share.
> >
> > I also came across several pillar coral colonies that I’ve been
> > informally monitoring over the years that have seemingly withstood
> > multiple stressors including (so far) SCTLD. I’ve read that Dendrogyra
> > cylindrus have been almost totally wiped out by SCTLD in Florida
> > waters so I am wondering why they don’t suffer a similar fate on
> > Bonaire. I’m guessing it has something to do with the fact that
> > Bonaire’s waters have not yet warmed like Florida’s have. ( I have
> > several pictures of what appear to be healthy pillar coral from Bonaire
> as well).
> >
> > Considering that paper on SCTLD and butterflyfish - what about other
> > species as potential vectors? I have a good shot of a lizardfish
> > laying directly upon a healthy star coral. It seems that there are
> > multitudes of possible suspects. Although I faithfully disinfected my
> > scuba gear as directed, I couldn’t help but feel like I was
> > participating in a modern day version of a rain dance ritual.
> >
> > On a more positive note, a welcomed respite, there were no cruise
> > ships barging in on Bonaire the entire week.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Steve Mussman
> >
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