Fast Moving Coral Disease Alert on Bonaire

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Also in the same issue of the Bonaire Reporter is an editorial by Dee Scarr, noted environmentalist and conservationist.

Reef Glimpses by Dee Scarr Covid v SCTLD

Remember how nasty Covid-19 was at the beginning?


Seriously, think back. Remember all those guidelines from reliable sources, guidelines that changed daily, or that contradicted each other? Imagine how bad Covid would have been with these four not-so-little differences: 1. It infected not just people, but most mammals. 2. Community members were physically unable to leave their communities in any way. 3. Community members were unable to filter their breathing or disinfect anything. 4. Once any community (of people, of prairie dogs, of cattle) became infected, almost every individual in the entire community died within weeks if not more quickly.

Please, take a moment to imagine this.


When I first wondered about how Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD for short in writing, spoken as “skittle-d”, or more often “that d..n skittle-d”) would compare with Covid, I was astonished to realize how much worse the SCTLD is than Covid, except that Covid attacks people and SCTLD attacks corals. Thank goodness the two horrors didn’t attack simultaneously…

SCTLD is currently being fought on two major fronts: first, using a version of antibiotic paste mixture on diseased corals, which is likely to stop the disease from progressing where it is applied. Unfortunately, though, the antibiotic paste doesn’t necessarily protect the rest of the same coral colony, which may become diseased elsewhere and die anyway.

A second front for battling SCTLD is by securing potential breeding populations of the affected corals. That sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Until you realize it means that people who have spent decades protecting corals will be deliberately breaking perfectly healthy coral colonies, and transporting chunks of them to aquaria. Their goal is to keep the corals alive to repopulate the Caribbean, should the corals be completely wiped out in the wild. Something recognized less than ten years ago is believed to be on its way to destroying dozens of types of coral. It sounds more like science fiction than reality, but it’s reality and startling evidence as to how seriously this disease is being taken.

A third front against SCTLD is that of doing everything possible to keep unaffected corals healthy, including lessening the impact of divers. Bonaire is one of the few places where this kind of protection can be established. We’ll be able to tell future generations about how we protected the coral on Klein Bonaire and our north coast, simply by leaving it alone for a while, and how we disinfected our gear to protect other areas.

In fewer than twenty years, SCTLD has threatened around 30 different species of coral with extinction. It was officially recognized as being on Bonaire only this year. What does its presence mean? What’s the significance of stony coral dying? The answer is simple:


Stony corals build the reef.

When stony corals die, their unprotected skeletons are worn down by boring sponges, encrusting algae, algae-eaters like parrotfish and damselfish, and all sorts of other organisms. Over time, the dead reef shrinks; its cracks and crevices fill with debris, and fewer homesites are available to crabs, anemones, morays, and even cleaner gobies. Where will Lady Squid find ledges under which to attach her egg capsules? When a whole reef dies, it’s generally because of water pollution or siltation or some other physical event, and many other animals are poisoned or smothered in addition to the corals. SCTLD is different because it’s solely killing stony corals. So far, the effect of SCTLD on our reef habitats can’t be measured. Let’s hope things never get that far along.

A couple of additional thoughts. We’ve all been taking photos of SCTLDed corals, but isn’t now the time to photograph the healthy corals? All of the corals, actually; what we’re seeing is unprecedented, so any documentation will be useful. Ideas could be useful, too. My best idea at the moment is to bioengineer zooxanthella (the alga that live within coral polyps) so they kill all forms of SCTLD. Next, introduce those zoox into the at-risk corals (maybe after bleaching?). Each coral colony would then be protected by its own algal army. That’s some serious symbiosis!
Now, if it could only be reality!
What’s your idea?

Dee has been guiding divers on Bonaire since 1982. She’s written about her undersea experiences in her books, Touch the Sea, The Gentle Sea, and Coral’s Reef (for children); in Dive Training Magazine from 1990 to 2000, with “Coral Glimpses” in the Bonaire Reporter, and now with “Reef Glimpses.” The Bonaire Reporter is delighted to bring “Reef Glimpses” to you free of charge through touchthesea.com.
 
I didn't know where best to post this. My wife and I are currently in Bonaire. There is a tremendous amount of white coral at every dive site. I was hoping that much of it was coral bleaching and would be reversible. The water temperature is down to 81-82 degrees. There is not a lot of algae on the reefs.

Unfortunately, it looks like STINAPA has updated the SCTLD map and it is depressing.
All sites on Klein Bonaire are now red. All sites on the west side from Barkadera down to Angel City are red. All the sites north of BOPEC are now yellow. There are only 3 sites at the south end that are still green, Vista Blue, Sweet Dreams, and Willemstoren Lighthouse.

Sea life is still quite good. We have seen many green and spotted morays, quite a few goldentail morays, and a couple of chain morays. We've seen a couple of seahorses, and about 4 or 5 eagle rays. Yesterday, we saw the 1st reef shark I have seen in Bonaire after 300 dives. There was a huge tiger grouper on the same dive. Creole wrasse, brown and blue chromis, bogas, and tangs are all around. All the usual reef fish are out and the tarpon are prowling. No frogfish so far.

I'm still hoping much of this is coral bleaching and reversible. The sight of the coral is heartbreaking :(
 
All the sites north of BOPEC are now yellow.
Playa Benge and Boka Bartol are still Green.
White Hole is still Green on the East side.
Not much left.
NOTE the STINAPA map is of SCTLD (not reversible), not bleaching (possible recovery).
 
I wonder if they will open the north sites back to divers now that they are yellow. The bleaching for the most part should recover, I'd think we'd know for sure by say March as the temps continue to recover.
 
I didn't know where best to post this. My wife and I are currently in Bonaire. There is a tremendous amount of white coral at every dive site. I was hoping that much of it was coral bleaching and would be reversible. The water temperature is down to 81-82 degrees. There is not a lot of algae on the reefs.

Unfortunately, it looks like STINAPA has updated the SCTLD map and it is depressing.
All sites on Klein Bonaire are now red. All sites on the west side from Barkadera down to Angel City are red. All the sites north of BOPEC are now yellow. There are only 3 sites at the south end that are still green, Vista Blue, Sweet Dreams, and Willemstoren Lighthouse.

Sea life is still quite good. We have seen many green and spotted morays, quite a few goldentail morays, and a couple of chain morays. We've seen a couple of seahorses, and about 4 or 5 eagle rays. Yesterday, we saw the 1st reef shark I have seen in Bonaire after 300 dives. There was a huge tiger grouper on the same dive. Creole wrasse, brown and blue chromis, bogas, and tangs are all around. All the usual reef fish are out and the tarpon are prowling. No frogfish so far.

I'm still hoping much of this is coral bleaching and reversible. The sight of the coral is heartbreaking :(
Fwiw i dove 2 sites in the upper keys and the bleaching was gone
The crappy wx has stopped me from seeing whether chickens and cheeca has revovered at all
 
I didn't know where best to post this. My wife and I are currently in Bonaire. There is a tremendous amount of white coral at every dive site. I was hoping that much of it was coral bleaching and would be reversible. The water temperature is down to 81-82 degrees. There is not a lot of algae on the reefs.

Unfortunately, it looks like STINAPA has updated the SCTLD map and it is depressing.
All sites on Klein Bonaire are now red. All sites on the west side from Barkadera down to Angel City are red. All the sites north of BOPEC are now yellow. There are only 3 sites at the south end that are still green, Vista Blue, Sweet Dreams, and Willemstoren Lighthouse.

Sea life is still quite good. We have seen many green and spotted morays, quite a few goldentail morays, and a couple of chain morays. We've seen a couple of seahorses, and about 4 or 5 eagle rays. Yesterday, we saw the 1st reef shark I have seen in Bonaire after 300 dives. There was a huge tiger grouper on the same dive. Creole wrasse, brown and blue chromis, bogas, and tangs are all around. All the usual reef fish are out and the tarpon are prowling. No frogfish so far.

I'm still hoping much of this is coral bleaching and reversible. The sight of the coral is heartbreaking :(
I was in Bonaire in October. I agree this is heartbreaking to hear. 😢
 
I wonder if they will open the north sites back to divers now that they are yellow. The bleaching for the most part should recover, I'd think we'd know for sure by say March as the temps continue to recover.
The bleaching looked this week like it's already recovering.
 
There are only 3 sites at the south end that are still green, Vista Blue, Sweet Dreams, and Willemstoren Lighthouse.
To what extent, if any, will divers shift to focusing on diving those sites?

Sweet Dreams is my favorite Bonaire dive site due to the lush gorgonian laden shallows. Very beautiful. Vista Blue was also quite good, IIRC. My one dive at Wllemstoren Lighthouse was with a group years ago, including an old instructor of mine who could read sea conditions well enough to confirm they were benign enough to go in. Southern tip diving can be quite nice.
 
FWIW, I just got back from a week of diving in Bonaire (my fourth trip) and I thought it was pretty awful, relatively speaking. The corals were bleached, although it was better at the end of the week than when we started, but there were a lot of areas where the corals were brown and lifeless, and the marine life was minimal. Yes, we saw some cool things, and the Salt Pier was a great dive, twice (octopus and seahorse, plus all the normal creatures), but the rest of it was uninspiring and pretty poor in my opinion.
 
FWIW, I just got back from a week of diving in Bonaire (my fourth trip) and I thought it was pretty awful, relatively speaking. The corals were bleached, although it was better at the end of the week than when we started, but there were a lot of areas where the corals were brown and lifeless, and the marine life was minimal. Yes, we saw some cool things, and the Salt Pier was a great dive, twice (octopus and seahorse, plus all the normal creatures), but the rest of it was uninspiring and pretty poor in my opinion.

Unfortunately I would agree with this, there last week.
 
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