STINAPA EMERGENCY: Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) is in Bonaire

[scubbq]

Spread the world as much as you can. On island, and already explaining to the average tourist diver, and they just don’t care. So upsetting.

Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD), a highly lethal coral disease that has been impacting much of Florida since 2014 and the wider Caribbean since 2019, has been detected on the reefs in Bonaire. SCTLD impacts over 30 species of hard corals, many of them important reef builders, that comprise much of Bonaire’s reefs. Once a coral reef is infected, over 70% of corals die. This letter is meant to inform you of the steps STINAPA will be taking to document the extent and eventual spread of this coral disease. We will also advise you via this letter on actions you and your guests can take to help us slow the spread of SCTLD.
Preliminary surveys done on July 22nd and 23rd 2022 confirm the disease is present and spreading at Karpata (dive site 9). As such we will be closing Karpata until further notice in hopes of limiting the spread of SCTLD from this site to the rest of the Bonaire National Marine Park (BNMP). We urge all divers in the BNMP to follow recommended gear decontamination protocols to limit spread. All non- sensitive gear should be rinsed in a 1% bleach solution, sensitive gear should be soaked for 10 minutes in a disinfection solution before being rinsed and allowed to dry fully. These decontamination protocols can be found on AGRRA’s website using this link:
https://www.agrra.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Florida-coral-disease-decontamination- protocol.pdf.
STINAPA staff will begin monitoring and tracking the disease at Karpata and other sites in the BNMP to determine the best path forward. If you or any of your guests observe any signs of infection at other sites in Bonaire, please report your sightings, if possible with pictures and directions to the location, to info@stinapa.org or submit a report via Coral Disease Outbreak - AGRRA.
In the coming days and weeks, we will be providing updates on the disease and mitigation efforts via our social media platforms. We kindly request your help in getting this message out to all the users of the BNMP and your guests in particular. There are few effective treatments for this disease; it’s crucial we try and limit the spread as much as possible.
We trust we have informed you sufficiently for now but if you have any questions and/or remarks, please do not hesitate to contact us. You can contact us per e-mail (info@stinapa.org) and/or per telephone (00599-7178444).
We thank you in advance for your help with spreading our message about SCTLD to users of the BNMP!

How Divers Can Help Combat Coral Disease

Divers can do their part to help ensure stony coral tissue loss disease does not spread and cause further destruction.

dan.org

https://www.gcfi.org/emerging-issues-florida-coral-disease-outbreak/

 

[drrich2]

So it's been detected recently at Karpata and they're closing Karpata to diving, hoping to limit the spread. Given the nature of Bonaire's reef, it's hard to imagine the disease won't spread southward and eventually afflict the whole reef wall, albeit perhaps in a patchy way. Bad news, but I imagine this was only a matter of time.

Now the question is how fast and extensively will it spread, and how bad will the reefs look and for how long?

Richard.

 

[arubabob1]

I went to Karpota for our 2nd dive yesterday. We geared up, walked in, put our fins on and started swimming out. A guy came swimming towards me and said this sight is now closed. You must turn around and leave this dive sight. So it looks like we now have COVID under the water!!!!!

 

[deeper thoughts]

So it's been detected recently at Karpata and they're closing Karpata to diving, hoping to limit the spread. Given the nature of Bonaire's reef, it's hard to imagine the disease won't spread southward and eventually afflict the whole reef wall, albeit perhaps in a patchy way. Bad news, but I imagine this was only a matter of time.

Now the question is how fast and extensively will it spread, and how bad will the reefs look and for how long?

Richard.

I watched it spread in the keys. It spreads quickly and so far nothing really helps
They are working on antibiotic cures and such right now.
it decimated alot of hard coral here

 

[Eric802]

Grand Cayman's reefs took quite a hit, if I recall correctly.

 

[USC8791]

It will be interesting to see how well the dive ops on Bonaire respond. How strong will the education be for divers renting tanks? Will they stock cleaning supplies appropriate for decontamination for use in their rinse tanks, as well as for sale to divers (this would take time to ramp up)? Will they offer rinse buckets to their tank renters to take in their trucks (quite an expensive endeavor)? Will dive boats offer appropriate decontamination procedures between dives? Will divers even adhere to the decontamination procedure requests? I guess we’ll see. As Dr. Rich said this was most likely a matter of time. I guess those of us who now know will be adding a few new things to our packing lists.

 

[Joneill]

It will be interesting to see how well the dive ops on Bonaire respond. How strong will the education be for divers renting tanks? Will they stock cleaning supplies appropriate for decontamination for use in their rinse tanks, as well as for sale to divers (this would take time to ramp up)? Will they offer rinse buckets to their tank renters to take in their trucks (quite an expensive endeavor)? Will dive boats offer appropriate decontamination procedures between dives? Will divers even adhere to the decontamination procedure requests? I guess we’ll see. As Dr. Rich said this was most likely a matter of time. I guess those of us who now know will be adding a few new things to our packing lists.

Do these decontamination efforts even work? I seriously doubt you can prevent spread in an open ocean setting this way unless many of the divers are dragging along against the coral - which is a whole other issue if it is?

 

[scubadada]

Do these decontamination efforts even work? I seriously doubt you can prevent spread in an open ocean setting this way unless many of the divers are dragging along against the coral - which is a whole other issue if it is?

Unfortunately I agree. the prevailing current in Bonaire is south. Why wouldn't SCTLD spread south? This information makes me very sad, my wife and I have our 9th trip to Bonaire at the end of August. How did SCTLD get to Bonaire? Doesn't seem like currents. I would guess commercial or cruise ships.

 

[tursiops]

Unfortunately I agree. the prevailing current in Bonaire is south. Why wouldn't SCTLD spread south? This information makes me very sad, my wife and I have our 9th trip to Bonaire at the end of August.

I thought the prevailing current was North?

 

[drrich2]

We urge all divers in the BNMP to follow recommended gear decontamination protocols to limit spread. All non- sensitive gear should be rinsed in a 1% bleach solution, sensitive gear should be soaked for 10 minutes in a disinfection solution before being rinsed and allowed to dry fully.

If the goal is to have all shore divers do that after every dive site change, I cannot imagine it will happen. The typical Bonaire 'work flow' for shore diving I've seen and done is load 2 tanks in the morning, head out to dive one dive each at 2 different (but usually not far distant) dive sites, eat lunch, swap for 2 more tanks back at the dive op., head out in afternoon and repeat. Maybe do a house reef night dive if staying ocean front.

The idea of heading back in and soaking gear 10-minutes after every single dive will probably not fly.

You might get people to do it at the end of the dive day, after they've variously hit 3 or 4 different dive sites.

Even soaking gear during lunch break likely won't happen consistently. A BCD weighted with lead is heavy. Hauling gear to/from rinse tanks from truck is a hassle.