Fast Moving Coral Disease Alert on Bonaire

[scubadada]

@scubadada I don’t think there’s any doubt about what it is, but as far as I know, there is not a definitive diagnostic test. Ellen’s pictures are dated and show progression on specific colonies—it’s dispiriting, to say the least, how fast the progression is over just a few days, which is certainly characteristic. Some of them also show the coral head actually blackening in the grooves as they die, unlike a bleaching event (which anyway would not occur in the relatively-cool water temps of late). Oh, Bonaire . . .

Point well taken. The coral disease that closed Karpata and La Dania's Leap last summer was eventually declared to not be SCTLD. This seems different.

The updated map now shows infection north to Something Special and south to Windsock. Caution is shown north to Front Porch and south to Bachelor's Beach, see post #3 Fast Moving Coral Disease Alert on Bonaire

STINAPA maant tot voorzichtigheid in verband met koraalziekte - Bonaire.Nu

Natuurorganisatie STINAPA zegt te vrezen dat de koraalziekte Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) is nu toch de riffen van het eiland hebben bereikt.

bonaire.nu

Extremely sad.

 

[tarponchik]

This gif animation shows a patch of disease. This last month I have been monitoring the growth of this patch of disease at the Something Special dive site. So far the growth has been slow and it is the only patch I have seen at this site in town. My wife and I are restricting our diving to only one site per day and soaking all gear with fresh water, complete drying and sun exposure before diving another site.

I wonder if they are doing pathogen sampling of rinse tubs at resorts and if they have thought of having a disinfectant rinse basin at each station.

Incidentally, at the same site, there is sometimes a strong current. I have seen a few divers with very high-end camera gear doing macro photography holding location by gripping living coral heads with their hands.

Mike Godsey
Weatherflow.com
iwindsurf.com

So it looks like coral bleaching? How do you tell one from the other?

 

[rmorgan]

So it looks like coral bleaching? How do you tell one from the other?

Take a look at Ellen’s pictures. It starts as a small patch or band, and in a few days overtakes the whole head. A 2021 article notes that “A unique diagnostic sign of SCTLD is the presence of bleached circular areas when SCTLD lesions are first appearing in the colony.” Bleaching occurs when the corals are under stress from an environmental change, as I understand it, causing the corals to expel their zooxanthellae, thus preventing photosynthesis. There are no such stressors off Bonaire—water temps as normal. The SCTLD attacks the coral animals themselves. But right now, spread is from colony to colony, so the diagnosis, while symptom-based, is not hard. Also, Ellen’s pictures show that after the disease runs its course, the coral starts to blacken in the grooves, and my understanding is that post-mortem, the coral skeletons slough off the substrate, leaving only a rock.

Ellen Muller has been beautifully documenting—and discovering—Bonaire’s reefs and its denizens for decades. As she recently said, “I weep for the beautiful Maze Corals. It was less than 6 years ago that I first recorded, the previously unknown, spawning schedule for this species. The landscape of Bonaire’s reefs will be changed forever. https://pbase.com/imagine/mazecoral”

 

[scubadada]

Unfortunately, SCTLD has been confirmed in Bonaire. The folks at Dive Friends replied to my query. There is now a post by STINAPA

https://stinapabonaire.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/STINAPA-SCTLD_A3_Compressed.pdf

 

[tursiops]

Unfortunately, SCTLD has been confirmed in Bonaire. The folks at Dive Friends replied to my query. There is now a post by STINAPA

https://stinapabonaire.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/STINAPA-SCTLD_A3_Compressed.pdf

STINAPA posted extensively on this a week or more ago, including the April 5 GIS map of locations.

 

[scubadada]

STINAPA posted extensively on this a week or more ago, including the April 5 GIS map of locations.

That's strange that it was not shared here, I would have expected you to post it

 

[tursiops]

That's strange that it was not shared here, I would have expected you to post it

I alerted all the folks I'm traveling to Bonaire with this Fall.
I'll try and do better....

 

[Joneill]

Unfortunately, SCTLD has been confirmed in Bonaire. The folks at Dive Friends replied to my query. There is now a post by STINAPA

https://stinapabonaire.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/STINAPA-SCTLD_A3_Compressed.pdf

I’m in Aruba right now and it looks like it’s here too. I just did a few shore dives so far, and those sites were reasonably healthy. However a DM friend here told me the hard corals are rapidly dying off here too - fastest he’s ever seen this type of spread and death in hard corals in his 20+ years on island.

Water temps are only ~79F so not bleaching temps at all.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

I'll be in BON with my wife and another couple for 10 days from April 28 through May 7 and will report back here with any new observations and info.... Fortunately we are staying in a private villa up in the Sabadeco area and it has an outdoor fresh water shower and also a private chlorinated fresh water pool....... So upon return to the villa we will fully rinse as much as possible in the outdoor shower....... then chuck our gear into the pool for some additional chlorine "cleansing" ...

 

[tursiops]

I'll be in BON with my wife and another couple for 10 days from April 28 through May 7 and will report back here with any new observations and info.... Fortunately we are staying in a private villa up in the Sabadeco area and it has an outdoor fresh water shower and also a private chlorinated fresh water pool....... So upon return to the villa we will fully rinse as much as possible in the outdoor shower....... then chuck our gear into the pool for some additional chlorine "cleansing" ...

That is not sufficient cleansing, according to the directives on the STINAPA Website.