FullThrottle
Contributor
Carysfort is indeed sad to see. I caught my first lobster at Carysfort in 1971, and recently dove there again for the first time since the 70s. Acres of shallow elk horn died off from algae overgrowth after the Caribbean-wide diadema plague in the early 80's and the stumps of dead elk horn are now evident. Declining water quality from development and human waste may have exacerbated the algae growth in the 80s but it's an outside reef with generally very clean water, so that seems unlikely, and the development was stopped by the early 80s. Also the Keys have now been connected to a sewer system and the old septic tanks cleaned out and shut down. I've read that a healthy parrotfish population is also considered important for algae control but the urchins dying off is the most obvious cause of the decline of Carysfort. And meanwhile many other reefs have thriving elk horn and stag horn. It may just be a natural event, and there may be natural reef progression from one dominant specie to others. Still sad and disappointing.
