[Coral-List] SCTLD on Bonaire

Tue Jul 25 19:32:27 UTC 2023

Hi Alina,

It's okay to be negative, as that is what scientists do- LOL!  I
understand completely. Less is best is what we all believe in.  So
your response is the sort of knee-jerk response I have come to expect.
I have been accused of "playing GOD" with coralliophila snail removal
in the Caribbean and Acanthaster removal in the Pacific in earlier
days as well.  Plus butterflyfish are beautiful, and they look so
gentle and innocent, and so I can understand that people's hearts
would tend to dominate their heads on this one.

However, the corals have taken millions of years to evolve and their
future is on the line!  So if butterfly fish have even a slight chance
of being a primary means for transfer of SCTLD, the precautionary
principle in favor of the endangered species would remove them. If we
wait for all the facts to be published in peer reviewed journals, it
could be too late.  There are so few of the corals left, that removal
would translate to killing only a few hundred of the fish regionally.
The danger we face is not just to the Caribbean: coral reefs of
perhaps the entire planet are potentially at risk, due to the
ineffectiveness of ballast water protocols, so certainly any risk to a
few coral predators is insignificant to the overall protection of the
corals of the planet.

In addition to the published Noonan and Childress study, establishing
the 4-eyes as potentially problematic, in 2004 in Honduras and Belize,
we found that the 4-eyes were the primary vector in the rapid tissue
loss disease in Acropora.   It appeared that they were intentionally
spreading the disease, so the tissues would lift off or something!
They would bite an infected area and then a non-diseased neighboring
branch and alternate.  However, a later paper by Noonan et al.
suggests that the fish might remove diseased tissues and therefore
help in the healing as well.  However the fish do not confine their
feeding to the dead tissues, so while it could indeed help the lesions
by removing infected tissues, at the same time it bites non infected
tissues and colonies, and thus is a prime suspect as a major vector in
spreading the disease.

With any emerging problem like this, we must grab what we can and run
with it. But the precautionary principle has resulted in a paralysis
of will, as it is being interpreted wrongly, that to do nothing is
better than to err on the side of over-reacting.  We wait for peer
reviewed publications, which take years to come out, and we tend to
discount observations and unpublished work.  I find the same
conservativeness when dealing with mass coral death due to bleaching-
and there is no emergency working group to address mass coral
bleaching either, no pile of funds to use for experimental
interventions during active events.  The failure of the system to
control this disease and to address mass bleaching threatens the coral
reefs of the entire planet, and this reflects poorly on the scientific
community.  Massive funding for urgent research and action was needed
five years ago, to include sampling of genotypes of the species
affected to secure them in land-based systems, predator/ vector
removal experiments, and the like.

Back to the Titanic analogy: The ship is sinking, and our operating
system requires that all lifeboats be fully inspected and proven
seaworthy before we allow them to be launched and for people to board
them, normally a good policy.  But the ship is now sinking rapidly,
but we continue as normal, as the system requires that all lifeboats
must be adequately inspected before launching!  The passengers that we
are supposed to be saving are now drowning.... so it is time to break
the rules, even if some lifeboats have holes in them and start
sinking, we can repair them as we go!

Regards

Austin

Noonan, K.R., Childress, M.J. Association of butterflyfishes and stony
coral tissue loss disease in the Florida Keys. Coral Reefs 39,
1581–1590 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-020-01986-8

The Influence of Foureye Butterflyfish (Chaetodon capistratus) and
Symbiodiniaceae on the Transmission of Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease
Kara Titus, Lauren O’Connell, Kristiaan Matthee, Michael Childress
Front. Mar. Sci., 21 March 2022.  Sec. Coral Reef Research Volume 9 -
2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.800423

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
TEDx talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PRLJ8zDm0U
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/

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
TEDx talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PRLJ8zDm0U
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/

Teitei Livelihoods Centre
Km 20 Sigatoka Valley Road, Fiji Islands
(679) 938-6437
http:/www.teiteifiji.org
http://permacultureglobal.com/projects/1759-sustainable-environmental-livelihoods-farm-Fiji
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/happy-chickens-for-food-security-and-environment-1/

On Wed, Jul 26, 2023 at 1:33 AM Alina Szmant
<alina at cisme-instruments.com> 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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