Fast Moving Coral Disease Alert on Bonaire

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Ok, but where is the evidence that divers spread it and any of the precautions people recommend for divers halt the spread?

I stand by my statement there is no scientific basis for any of the precautions being recommended and will gladly stand corrected when referenced a peer reviewed article.
So rather than take the more cautious approach and be a help even if it is a stopgap - you are screw them I am not doing anything different. Always easy to say when you have no skin in the game.
 
It is certainly unlikely that a diver brought SCTLD to Bonaire. However, Grand Cayman's well-documented experience shows that in the months after SCTLD arrived, it was identified at a number of distant spots around the island which had boat moorings, and hence divers. It now fully rings the island. Did those hotspots accellerate the spread? It seems obvious that they did. Were the hotspots caused by human activity? That seems more likely than not, since it seems improbable that currents or fish movements would move the disease from one mooring to another. Was it stuff attached to smallcraft hulls? In their bilges? Divers? Fishers? I don't think they have a theory, and don't see how they could answer that question. Regardless, it seems obvious that having 10 locations from which it can spread is worse than having one--and that if one site on Klein gets hit, all of Klein's hard corals are existentially threatened. Shutdown may not work, but even if it just slows things down, STINAPA is doing the best it can.
 
The only thing I am worried about is 10% bleach solution eating my tee shirt and clothes. Splashing one drop will ruin just about any colored cotton. Nothing of mine is going into that solution. Lysol, no problem.
 
The only thing I am worried about is 10% bleach solution eating my tee shirt and clothes. Splashing one drop will ruin just about any colored cotton. Nothing of mine is going into that solution. Lysol, no problem.
STINAPA's guidance for disinfection allows you to decide if your tee-shirts are non-sensitive, sensitive, or extra sensitive....
From Bonaire National Marine Park:

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
 
Maybe STINAPA should just delete the bleach recommendation as I think they would get more compliance.

As to the spread. Have they done any studies on divers' gear after diving in an infected site to see the degree it could be a problem?
 
Have they done any studies on divers' gear after diving in an infected site to see the degree it could be a problem?

That might be rather difficult without knowing exactly what's causing the disease.
 

A few breifings on SCTLD and experiments in controled conditions.

It can transfer from coral to coral without any third party (just through water) but not 100%.

Detailed breif. interesting stuff at 30:20, 40:15 ...

 

A few breifings on SCTLD and experiments in controled conditions.

It can transfer from coral to coral without any third party (just through water) but not 100%.

Detailed breif. interesting stuff at 30:20, 40:15 ...

Have not read this all yet but a FB message:

The causative agent of the disease may be in the water column and sediments (and thus transmissible by diver equipment), if this research study (https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.00681) turns out to be correct. They found two families of bacteria in high abundance in coral lesions, but not in healthy tissues on the same, or uninfected corals. In disease-endemic sites, the same bacteria were found in the water column and in sediment biofilms (bacterial mats around sand grains). In separate studies, even ultraviolet treatment of biofilms (sort of the gold standard) did not kill off all bacteria. The big issue is that divers can transport the disease to sites where currents or animal movements wouldn't otherwise take it naturally.

Rhodobacterales and Rhizobiales Are Associated With Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease and Its Suspected Sources of Transmission

FRONTIERSIN.ORG
Rhodobacterales and Rhizobiales Are Associated With Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease and Its Suspected Sources of Transmission
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020....j3XHxdKim-j3Zwhlai6dPewmoJ1WPqJI1lE0pbaCCmqAQ
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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