[Coral-List] coral disease in the Caribbean

Gregory Boland g_boland at hotmail.com
Tue Oct 1 15:38:57 UTC 2019


Steve,

Just back from 5 days of diving in Cozumel on 9-28-19.  The coral situation is grim, especially on the further north reefs like Paradise just next to the cruise ship piers on our second dive early last week.  Heads of cavernosa and Orbicella were nearly all dead with 1-2 inch white bands of mortality so recent that algae had not even had a chance to establish and little remaining live tissue. Other large portions of these heads were covered in green algae and the remainder being older mortality. There was virtually no Eusmilia alive anywhere (saw dozens of completely dead clusters on most reefs).  The few live calicies in a few places did not look healthy and were surrounded by dead skeletons. Most all large heads of Pseudodiploria and Colpophyllia were completely dead on all reefs (glad I did not invest any time to try and see Colpophyllia spawning at 10:30 PM as it would have been hard to find any alive). Actually Palancar appeared to be in better shape than Paradise, Yucab and the northern reefs, perhaps because mortality had occurred earlier and white bands were not noticeable. Porites porites seems to be the one species immune from the new disease.  Agaricia is doing pretty well too, but some noticeable limited mortality, or possibly bleaching, hard to tell with that group while whizzing by in the current. Often thinking about the Flower Garden Banks in the Gulf of Mexico with 50 - 80% live coral cover, some Cozumel reefs had nearly zero percent cover and most all at 1-2% cover or less now.

Water was a consistent 86 degrees everywhere above 80 ft. Saw little to no bleaching anywhere. Ironically, at Scuba Club Cozumel where we were staying, there is a very healthy .5 m diameter Pseudodiploria head growing on a dock piling at about 8 ft deep and a very healthy A. palmata in 3 ft of water just in front of the hammocks on shore. It has been there for years and is growing nicely with no signs of disease or damsel fish bites.

One rumor going around was that the closure was based on the idea that divers could be spreading the bacteria between reefs on dive gear, certainly with no evidence. We all know the urchin die-off did not need any divers to move pathogens around. UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico) had very recently installed stainless marker eye bolts (not even bacteria film on epoxy) at Paradise and at least one other nearby reef we dove on. I know Dr. Elva Escobar there and will ask about this work.

I have images of most everything mentioned if anyone interested.

Greg Boland
________________________________
From: Coral-List <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> on behalf of Steve Mussman via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Sent: Monday, September 30, 2019 8:44 PM
To: Douglas Fenner <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>
Cc: coral list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] coral disease in the Caribbean

Hi Doug and Listers,

Can anyone shine additional light on the this SCTLD (Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease)?
Based on the article you posted there are many at work trying to figure out the dynamics involved, so I was hoping there might be at least some preliminary information available.
Cozumel recently decided to (at least temporarily) shut down a number of reefs along the southernmost tract of their marine park, so I was wondering what their rationale was. The reefs in the affected area (especially Colombia and Palancar) are among the most popular dive spots in the region. Perhaps they are trying to reduce stress on the reefs that might be caused by high diver traffic in those areas. Another article I read claims that they suspect that it is caused by a bacterial infection. The famous currents in Cozumel generally run south to north, so I suspect all the reefs there are at risk. I saw examples of the disease back in July while diving there and at the time they were experimenting with a gum-like substance which they were applying as a barrier in an attempt to stop the progression of the disease. I have pictures if anyone is interested and any more information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Steve Mussman


Sent from my iPad

> On Sep 30, 2019, at 12:50 AM, Douglas Fenner via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
>
> As new disease wipes out Caribbean coral, scientists tear up reefs to stop
> the spread
> O
> https://www.reuters.com/article/us-environment-corals-idUSKBN1WB24D?fbclid=IwAR2wrhPCGLyiUmf7ZBicchXCQpPN2kM6bJtSdChSCTrOK2jiHAkUIY1gGKU
>
>
> Cheers,  Doug
>
> --
> Douglas Fenner
> Ocean Associates, Inc. Contractor
> NOAA Fisheries Service
> Pacific Islands Regional Office
> Honolulu
> and:
> Consultant
> PO Box 7390
> Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA
>
> "Global warming is manifestly the foremost current threat to coral reefs,
> and must be addressed by the global community if reefs as we know them will
> have any chance to persist."  Williams et al, 2019, Frontiers in Marine
> Science
>
> A call to climate action  (Science editorial)
> https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6443/807?utm_campaign=toc_sci-mag_2019-05-30&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=2840296
>
> New book "The Uninhabitable Earth"  First sentence: "It is much, much worse
> than you think."
> Read first (short) chapter open access:
> https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/read-a-chapter-from-the-uninhabitable-earth-a-dire-warning-on-climate-change
> _______________________________________________
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