Fast Moving Coral Disease Alert on Bonaire

[NW Dive Dawg]

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

My point is that I am trying to make an honest and valid effort.!!!

Instead of complaining or critiquing other people's honest efforts, how about you pontificate to all of us on exactly what you and your "Fall" group will do and what you will require your "group" to do to solve this issue?

 

[tursiops]

My point is that I am trying to make an honest and valid effort.!!!

Instead of complaining or critiquing other people's honest efforts, how about you pontificate to all of us on exactly what you and your "Fall" group will do and what you will require your "group" to do to solve this issue?

It is easy enough to find out what the currently recommended disinfection protocols are.
The STINAPA link above says:

"It’s essential for everybody to clean their gear before and after every dive day.​

• Non-sensitive gear – soak 5 mins in 10% bleach solution, rinse 10 mins in freshwater.
• Sensitive gear – soak 5 mins in 7% lysol solution, rinse 10 mins in freshwater.
• Extra sensitive gear – rinse in soap then fresh water
• Dry – hang gear, plan dives, avoid contaminated zones

Click Here To Watch Video "​

​

So you need to do more than rinse your gear off, even in chlorinated pool.

What am I going to do his Fall? Whatever the recommendations are by then, be they more relaxed or more stringent.

That's what we ALL should do....follow the recommendations for disinfection and diving protocols, such as are posted:

• Decontaminate your gear before and after each dive day.
• Limit your dives to one area per day, meaning each day only dive the North, Town, South, or Klein Bonaire.
• Avoid diving in the infected areas.
• Report sightings of potential SCTLD directly to this site. STINAPA can see and follow all reports on this site directly.

If you don't like this, then don't go to Bonaire.

 

[FishWatcher747]

What evidence is there that these diver disinfection policies are effective in preventing the spread of Stony Coral Disease on adjacent sites of a small coral reef island?

It seems it would be more useful to have the parrot fish and turtles disinfect themselves after each meal on the coral.

As a diver on Bonaire I spend an hour dive never touching the coral. The parrot fish and turtles are eating the coral and pooping the remains all over. They chomp one coral and without disinfecting themselves go chomp on another coral.

Sounds a lot like 2 weeks to stop the spread and shut down all the small businesses but let the large businesses stay open. Look how well that worked out.

 

[Joneill]

It is easy enough to find out what the currently recommended disinfection protocols are.
The STINAPA link above says:

"It’s essential for everybody to clean their gear before and after every dive day.​

• Non-sensitive gear – soak 5 mins in 10% bleach solution, rinse 10 mins in freshwater.
• Sensitive gear – soak 5 mins in 7% lysol solution, rinse 10 mins in freshwater.
• Extra sensitive gear – rinse in soap then fresh water
• Dry – hang gear, plan dives, avoid contaminated zones

Click Here To Watch Video "​

​

So you need to do more than rinse your gear off, even in chlorinated pool.

What am I going to do his Fall? Whatever the recommendations are by then, be they more relaxed or more stringent.

That's what we ALL should do....follow the recommendations for disinfection and diving protocols, such as are posted:

• Decontaminate your gear before and after each dive day.
• Limit your dives to one area per day, meaning each day only dive the North, Town, South, or Klein Bonaire.
• Avoid diving in the infected areas.
• Report sightings of potential SCTLD directly to this site. STINAPA can see and follow all reports on this site directly.

If you don't like this, then don't go to Bonaire.

I’ll pass on Bonaire for now as, sad to say, but I believe that this disinfection is all an excercise in futility - SCTLD disease ripped around Grand Cayman when they were closed during the pandemic and hardly anyone was diving.

If STINAPA and individuals are really concerned that divers may be spreadIng this disease, then they should not allow diving at all until the outbreak has run its course. Otherwise, someone better tell the fish and turtles to stop traveling between sites as well.

 

[drrich2]

"It’s essential for everybody to clean their gear before and after every dive day.

Thanks for posting, especially the link to the video, which answered some questions I had (like which cleaning approach to use for a BCD). Some follow up observations...

1.) I suspect people doing multiple dive days who disinfected their gear after diving last night won't the next morning before they do any dives.

2.) So this protocol calls for twice daily 'special cleaning' of gear. Since many divers are used to gear rinsing at the end of the dive day, not as big a departure from the norm as I had feared would be the case.

3.) Since much of the gear is considered 'sensitive,' including the BCD (which I suspect is more likely to soak up and hold some sea water and microbes), I question how much 'extra' good it does to put the modest gear deemed non-sensitive into bleach solution (and I'm wondering how much that may hasten dive knife rusting; the lady in the video commented on bleach being corrosive).

I'd like for this outbreak to go away, but share the jaded view it's going to spread around. That said, I wonder how far into the future it's likely to be before such special precautions are abandoned on the grounds it's all over anyway. Does anyone have examples of how long that took from other places hit with SCTLD?

I'm not wishing for ubiquitous SCTLD!

From those on Bonaire, or just recently, does it seem like the dive operators are pretty universally offering rinse tanks specific to the 3 categories of gear?

 

[rmorgan]

Dave, we have one relevant experience—an April 2021 trip to St. Croix, an early and pretty much complete victim of SCTLD. The operator we dove with made no mention of it, and there was no gear santizing (nor guidelines) in sight. I was saddened by that, and shocked to find that my gaze pretty quickly adjusted to the drab scene and to my eye, reduced fish population. (My observation was that the one dive we did at a site which seemed unaffected was swarming with fish, especially squirrelfish—it was like going from black-and-white to Technicolor. A 2020 study linked here found that most fish species prefer live coral, but four-spot butterflyfish liked the diseased corals—go figure.). Maybe the open ocean east of Bonaire will mitigate the spread.

 

[Charred]

None of this gear sanitizing is scientifically relevant as if there are not currents. These dive sites are not isolated pools just because they have unique names.

Divers likely didnt cause this and divers wont fix it nor will they make it worse. Cozumel closed whole sites and it did nothing to mitigate spread. All the corals impacted are dead in Cozumel and they still keep closing sites.

One thing I would caution is letting non-scientific, non-proven feel good efforts pass off as effective mitigations. This will simply contribute to random ineffective mitigations in place for the future. Further, if divers are not the cause, don't be blamed. This disease has followed the cruise industry around the Caribbean. However, everyone likes the blame the divers because they can be blamed with no financial impact. Have the dive boats stopped going to various sites? Have all the ships to and from Bonaire stopped?

Did anyone tell the fish to not travel from site to site?

 

[tursiops]

None of this gear sanitizing is scientifically relevant as if there are not currents. These dive sites are not isolated pools just because they have unique names.

Divers likely didnt cause this and divers wont fix it nor will they make it worse. Cozumel closed whole sites and it did nothing to mitigate spread. All the corals impacted are dead in Cozumel and they still keep closing sites.

One thing I would caution is letting non-scientific, non-proven feel good efforts pass off as effective mitigations. This will simply contribute to random ineffective mitigations in place for the future. Further, if divers are not the cause, don't be blamed. This disease has followed the cruise industry around the Caribbean. However, everyone likes the blame the divers because they can be blamed with no financial impact. Have the dive boats stopped going to various sites? Have all the ships to and from Bonaire stopped?

Did anyone tell the fish to not travel from site to site?

Is this post based on citable facts, or on your opinions?
"One thing I would caution is letting non-scientific" opinions take the place of the Precautionary Principle, and in direct violaton of local rules and rgulations.
It is not your island, nor your country. do as they say or stay away.

The "facts" pointing at the cruise industry are in dispute. See Fast Moving Coral Disease Alert on Bonaire for example.

 

[tursiops]

Here are some recent publications from components of NOAA.

Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease: Understanding & Preventing Disease Transmission Fact Sheet - Florida Sea Grant

The Transmission Fact Sheet is a compilation of research focused towards understanding the transmission of stony coral tissue loss disease and how it could affect coral reefs globally.

www.flseagrant.org

Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease Semi-Annual Newsletter: Winter 2023 Edition - Florida Sea Grant

The second edition of the annual SCTLD newsletter focuses on sharing coral disease knowledge and experience across U.S. coral jurisdictions. The newsletter highlights major updates, innovations, and accomplishments in coral […]

www.flseagrant.org

 

[rmorgan]

The "facts" pointing at the cruise industry are in dispute.

Indeed. Given that (1) there is actual evidence implicating ballast water in the spread of SCTLD, and (2) cargo vessels carry much more ballast water than cruise ships, there are plenty of potential sources, and no actual reason to think the disease arrived via one or the other.

As to the efficacy or not of precautions--I suppose the person who put the first lionfish or two into the Florida coastal waters thought, if they thought at all . . . "what could go wrong?" STINAPA sets the terms and conditions for use of the dive sites, and while it's fine to second-guess, it's not ok to disregard. The stakes are high enough as it is.