Sick Sea Fans
Koh Li Ling
liling_koh at hotmail.com
Mon Jul 3 11:01:08 EDT 2000
Dear Billy and Ken,
I was following your emails and got really interested about the diseased
seafans. I am a MSc student in Singapore working on diseased seafans. I
noticed the same phenomenon on the gorgonians here as well. Some seafans
have tissues that look dead, some are colonized by molluscs, algae, anemones
etc and some simply have the coenenchyme stripped of the colony leaving only
the axis.I am looking into the possibilty that fungi may be the causative
agents, however I still did not find any significant trends to prove that.
The cause of this may range anything from bad water to bacteria. I was just
wondering if any of you know of the causes behind these sick sea fans. Is it
also possible to contact the octocorals disease expert who is visiting the
Keys?
I'm looking forward to your reply. Thank you!!!
regards,
Li Ling
>From: Billy Causey <billy.causey at noaa.gov>
>To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov, Ken Nedimyer <sealife at terranova.net>
>Subject: Re: Sick Sea Fans
>Date: Sat, 01 Jul 2000 16:30:32 -0400
>
>Ken,
>Sender: owner-coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>Precedence: bulk
>Reply-To: Billy Causey <billy.causey at noaa.gov>
>
>Thank you very much for this report. On Thursday, June 29, 2000, I was
>diving Molasses Reef and Pickles Reef participating in the Great
>American Fish Count. After having read your report I was watching for
>disease problems on the sea fans and spotted only a few infected
>colonies at Molasses. However, I could not believe what I was observing
>at Pickles Reef. Well over 80% of the sea fans in the vicinity of the
>southern mooring buoy were infected with what appeared to be a
>cynobacterium or fine algae. In most instances the colonies were
>completely consumed by the infestation.
>
>Thank you again for the heads-up and the notice! I saw Steven Miller
>later in the day on Thursday and told him about your report and my
>observations and he said, coincidentally an expert on octocoral diseases
>will be in the Keys next week.
>
>Ken, I am broadcasting your observations very broadly to see if others
>have observed this problem.
>
>Thanks again and you have my most sincere thanks for keeping an eye out
>for these problems. You are indeed a leader amongst the marinelife
>collectors as are those you cc'ed on this list. Happy 4th of July to
>you! Cheers, Billy
>
>Ken Nedimyer wrote:
>
> > Billy,I've been seeing some serious disease problems with sea fans
> > along the reef line south west of Alligator reef. On Thursday I was
> > diving in about 35-40' of water a couple miles southwest of Alligator
> > and I noticed that about half of the sea fans either had dead spots on
> > them or were completely dead. There wasn't and visible diseased
> > tissue but it was defiantly recently dead and in the process of
> > dying. I was diving in the 1/2 mile east of there today (Saturday)
> > and noticed the same thing going on and today I shot a dozen or more
> > pictures of it. When I get the slides developed I'll either send them
> > to you of take them in to John Halas here in Key Largo. The inshore
> > sea fans off Key Largo look good and the inshore sea fans off Lower
> > Matecumbe look good, so far I've just noticed the diseased fans along
> > the reef line off Lower Matecumbe. GPS #s are 24.49.744,
> > 80.38.768. Ken Nedimyer
>
>--
>Billy D. Causey, Superintendent
>Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
>PO Box 500368
>Marathon, FL 33050
>Phone (305) 743.2437, Fax (305) 743.2357
>http://www.fknms.nos.noaa.gov/
>
>
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>Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
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>Ken,
><p>Thank you very much for this report. On Thursday, June 29, 2000,
>I was diving Molasses Reef and Pickles Reef participating in the Great
>American Fish Count. After having read your report I was watching
>for disease problems on the sea fans and spotted only a few infected
>colonies
>at Molasses. However, I could not believe what I was observing at
>Pickles Reef. Well over 80% of the sea fans in the vicinity of the
>southern mooring buoy were infected with what appeared to be a
>cynobacterium
>or fine algae. In most instances the colonies were completely
>consumed
>by the infestation.
><p>Thank you again for the heads-up and the notice! I saw Steven
>Miller later in the day on Thursday and told him about your report and
>my observations and he said, coincidentally an expert on octocoral diseases
>will be in the Keys next week.
><p>Ken, I am broadcasting your observations very broadly to see if others
>have observed this problem.
><p>Thanks again and you have my most sincere thanks for keeping an eye
>out for these problems. You are indeed a leader amongst the
>marinelife
>collectors as are those you cc'ed on this list. Happy 4th of July
>to you! Cheers, Billy
><p>Ken Nedimyer wrote:
><blockquote TYPE=CITE><style></style>
><font face="Arial"><font size=-1>Billy,</font></font><font
>face="Arial"><font size=-1>I've
>been seeing some serious disease problems with sea fans along the reef
>line south west of Alligator reef. On Thursday I was diving in about
>35-40' of water a couple miles southwest of Alligator and I noticed that
>about half of the sea fans either had dead spots on them or were completely
>dead. There wasn't and visible diseased tissue but it was defiantly
>recently dead and in the process of dying. I was diving in the 1/2
>mile east of there today (Saturday) and noticed the same thing going on
>and today I shot a dozen or more pictures of it. When I get the
>slides
>developed I'll either send them to you of take them in to John Halas here
>in Key Largo. The inshore sea fans off Key Largo look good and the inshore
>sea fans off Lower Matecumbe look good, so far I've just noticed the
>diseased
>fans along the reef line off Lower Matecumbe. GPS #s are
>24.49.744,
>80.38.768.</font></font> <font face="Arial"><font size=-1>Ken
>Nedimyer</font></font></blockquote>
>
><p>--
><br>Billy D. Causey, Superintendent
><br>Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
><br>PO Box 500368
><br>Marathon, FL 33050
><br>Phone (305) 743.2437, Fax (305) 743.2357
><br><A
>HREF="http://www.fknms.nos.noaa.gov/">http://www.fknms.nos.noaa.gov/</A>
><br>
></body>
></html>
>
>--------------BFC168EC5BF0C49C3BBB6F1A--
>
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