"white-line disease"

[Ernesto Weil]

Colonies of D.stockessi have started to show signs of the disease in 
Biscayne National Park reefs. Still very few individuals in the area though. 
Surveys made two weeks ago over 8 reefs (offshore and inshore) resulted in 
only one colony of Dstockesii (< 1% of colonies surveyed) with signs of the 
disease. Some colonies of Apalmata have been showing white bands (bleaching, 
white band disease?) for over a month but this bands do not seem to advance 
quickly. R. Curry from the Park  Service, noted some colonies of M.cavernosa 
also with white-line disease symptoms. On the other hand, many colonies 
(60-70 % of the ones surveyed) of Acervicornis where mostly dead with only 
the tips alive in two of our reef sites. This young colonies were doing fine 
until two weeks ago. Symptoms seem to be those of the "white-line" disease. 
More to come. EW.