[Coral-List] White spined Diadema

[Stuart P. Wynne]

Hi,

I just wanted to say thanks to all those who replied to my question
about white spined Diadema. It has been interesting to read your
ideas/observations and also read the articles that some of you have sent
me.

For the record, I see the white adults everywhere, and it doesn't seem
at all correlated to depth/light. Areas here that seem to be recovering
somewhat from the famous mortality event seem to have more black
individuals present, and areas that for whatever reason haven't yet
recovered seem to be made up mostly of white individuals - many in less
that a meter of bright sunlit water. I liked the idea that was mentioned
about during the mortality event cave protection may have mitigated
damage/predation to the white individuals that preferred to live in them
- although we have few such caves here so that doesn't hold for us.

Genetics and disease resistance seems likely to me, although neither of
these areas are my speciality so please don't quote me on that......

Stuart Wynne
Marine Biologist
Department of Fisheries and Marine Resources
Anguilla




Government of Anguilla