[Coral-List] Coral Tissue Loss Disease

[Eugene Shinn]

We thank Douglas Fenner for bringing this article on tissue loss disease 
to our attention. Tissue Loss Disease that began in the Miami area in 
2012 has now spread throughout to the wider Caribbean. The disease is 
presently decimating corals in the unpopulated southern Turks and Caicos 
hundreds of miles up-current and up-wind from where it was first detected.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/deadly-coral-disease-threatening-more-080043405.html 
<https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/deadly-coral-disease-threatening-more-080043405.html>

The disease should be taken seriously especially when reported by people 
like Judy Lang who is no new comer like most on the coral-list. Judy was 
probably the first to document Caribbean coral diseases and competition 
between coral species way back in the early 1970s. I do not know anyone 
else who knows more about corals and their diseases than Judy. Like Judy 
I too was concerned back then when I published an article in Sea 
Frontiers magazine. I was criticizing all the attention given to anchor 
damage and other physical threats while not paying attention to coral 
diseases that were the larger cause of coral demise. Coral biologists 
did finally began to recognize diseases as the main threat to coral 
reefs. Ironically these diseases were occurring before climate change 
took center stage. Back then /Acroporid/ death peaked everywhere in the 
Caribbean in 1983, and continues today. Black Band disease in head 
corals followed during the unusually calm weather of 1986. Antibiotics 
and underwater cement/epoxy dams were employed in attempts to stem the 
advance of black band disease.There were local successes but none 
sufficient to save entire coral reefs. Harold Hudson who became known as 
the “Coral Doctor” after leaving USGS and Joining the NOAA Florida Keys 
Marine Sanctuary was to my knowledge the first to attempt stemming the 
spread of black band disease. He pioneered the use of cement, epoxy, and 
underwater vacuums to stem the advance of black band. Little has changed 
except that those 200-year old affected corals are now dead. The exact 
origin of black band death then was not known and little is now known 
about the cause of Tissue Loss disease that began in the vicinity of the 
Miami ship channel. “What sparked the initial outbreak in Florida is a 
mystery—toxins, bacteria, and viruses are all potential culprits. /We’re 
likely never going to be able to say what was the one thing that caused 
it,” said Maurizio Martinelli, Florida Sea Grant’s coral disease 
response coordinator. “But it was a period of particular stress for 
coral.”/

When diseases attack humans and other animals there are usually huge 
efforts to identify the cause and source of the pathogenic 
bacteria/virus/or fungi responsible for the diseases. In the case of 
corals it has generally come down to treating only the symptoms, not the 
cause.Of course everyone still points their fingers at ships ballast 
water, small boats, sewage, unclean dive equipment, divers urine, You 
name it, all without any scientific proof? The blame game continues 
today as it did in the 1970s. Where is the research that might determine 
the actual cause, or causes? We know the “usual suspects” but why have 
they not been proven by research?

In less than a year Corona virus was determined to cause COVID 19 
disease. We know the cause but the source of this virus of course is not 
so easy. However, knowing the cause did lead to development of the 
vaccine.So, why can’t we determine the cause and source of the various 
coral diseases? We like to think we know the sources but what is the 
actual cause? Where is the proof that ballast water is the carrier? 
Don’t we have microbiologists that can determine the actual source and 
cause of these diseases? It would seem that until we know the causes we 
can not truly educate the public. Of course we want clean clear water 
but shouldn’t we know what microbes or chemicals in the water are 
causing the diseases? Where are the bioassays needed to prove the 
causes? The problem of course is money. Americans are not likely to 
spend the same amounts of money we spend on human diseases to cure sick 
corals. They are not warm and fuzzy enough for the average American in 
Montana to worry about. When humans and their children sicken it is 
another matter. Gene