[Coral-List] bleaching

[shashank Keshavmurthy]

Greetings Listers!!!!
I work in a small coral reef, predominantly
consistng of Acropora hyacinthus species.
Ofcourse it also consists of Stylopora pistillata
if not to the same extent.  I am talking of
Shikoku Island, Kochi Prefecture in Japan.  There
is also Acropora formosa colonies (if have not
made mistake in identifying!!!).  I have noticed
that the Acropora formosa colonies are beginning
to bleach,  thats what I think so, as most of the
healthy Acropora formosa picture I saw in "Corals
of the World" book looks white due to the
tip......but in this case I strongly believe that
they are infact bleaching. I want to make sure
before posting the bleaching report to the coral
list.
So, if there is anyone who is interested to take
a look at the pictures and confirm if there is
bleaching episode, it will help a lot.
One more interesting thing is that only this
species seems to be bleaching....all others seems
to be in good condition.
I will be happy to send the pictures of both
healthy and bleached part of the reef to anyone
interested. 

Cheers!!
shashank

=====
"the role of infinitely small in nature is infinitely large"-Louis Pasteur                

Keshavmurthy Shashank
Kochi University, Faculty of Agriculture
Lab. of AQUa. Environ. Sci. (LAQUES)
Otsu 200, Monobe, Nankoku-shi
783-8502, Kochi, Japan
alt. id: shashank at cc.kochi-u.ac.jp
phone: 81 090 8285 9012