7 News Belize

Florida’s Fight Against Stoney Coral Tissue Loss Disease
posted (August 30, 2019)

So as you heard in the story, the disease was first detected in Florida in 2014 and since then, marine experts there have been researching and conducting lab tests, among many other interventions. But, still, they don't have any concrete answers either. 

We got an interview with the Director of the Smithsonian Marine Station in Florida, Valerie Paul. She also manages the Carrie Bow Cay field station which is located on an island on the reef in Belize. Paul discussed some of the efforts that have been tried in Florida to better understand this disease, but also underscored how little is still known about this outbreak.

Valerie Paul - Director, Smithsonian Marine Station, Florida
"One of the things we have been doing in Florida in our laboratory is trying to develop probiotics, those are bacteria that are beneficial, you may have heard of probiotics in yogurt to aid in digestion and restore beneficial bacteria in human to our digestive system but we are trying a similar approach in the corals by treating them with beneficial bacteria that might produce antibiotics on their own that can help fight off the infection so in the lab we are having some good success with that we are hoping to try some of those interventions in the field as well."

"We don't really understand the spread because it jumped from Florida to Mexico but also some other countries at the same time like the US Virgin Islands, the spread does not seem to be explained very well by current patterns, we are worried that maybe shipping through ballast water or bio-films on the hull of ships or other means might be contributing to the spread, we really don't know at all what is going on so this is a bit of a concern because we don't know where it is going to spread next. The good news is that not all the, even within some of the coral species that get the disease not all individual corals will succumb, some we have been able to see have been able to fight off the disease and recover some of the large boulder corals can do that."

According to Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary website, the disease is affecting corals in Florida, Mexico, Belize, the Dominican Republic, and the US Virgin Islands. It is also suspected to be in Jamaica. Again, the cause and pattern of spreading is unclear at this time. 

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