DISEASE mysterious, highly contagious and deadly spread across reef Noisy Caribbean. This alarmed scientists and left a trail of skeletons in its path.
Its spread from Florida to the tip of the Caribbean was capable of wiping out most corals, destroying coral reefs and marine life for future generations.
Environmental damage will also disrupt the lives of millions of people in coastal communities who depend on coral reefs for food or work.
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“It’s basically like COVID reefs,” said Gabriela Ochoa, program manager at the Roatan Marine Park in the Gulf Islands of Honduras St Kitts Nevis OBSERVER, Thursday (19/8/2021).
Affecting more than 20 hard coral species, the danger of stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) threatens coral reefs that are slow growing, fragile and irreparably damaged.
Coral reefs in Australia. (Photo: Mikaela Nordborg)
“The only difference is that the COVID death rate is not even comparable to what we see on coral reefs,” Ochoa added. In some coral species, the mortality rate is up to 100 percent.
The first sign that a coral is infected is the appearance of small lesions where tissue, or skin, is absent, exposing bone.
While other factors such as pollution and climate change have caused the loss of about 60 percent of coral cover in the Caribbean over the last three decades, this new disease is killing at a much faster rate.
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Once a colony is infected, death can come very quickly. “You can lose a colony that grew for hundreds of years in just a few weeks or months,” said Melina Soto, Mexico Coordinator for the Health Reefs Initiative.
SCTLD was first discovered in 2014 off the coast of Florida, where it has since infected about half of the state’s reefs. The cause is unknown but it is most likely human.
Theories fall into two main lines. The first is that factors such as climate change and rising ocean temperatures along with contaminants such as untreated sewage and even sunscreen have reduced the resilience of reefs, leaving corals vulnerable to the bacteria present. The second centers around the idea that new pathogens emerge as a result of human activity.
“Like COVID, when you have other health problems, then you are at higher risk of getting COVID,” Ochoa said.
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Over the past seven years, the disease has spread throughout the Caribbean Sea, often moving against the current, indicating that the pathogen may have reached new areas by sticking to boats.
“One point that is almost always repeated is that the first case is found near the port,” said Soto.
