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Although not much is known about stony coral tissue loss disease, it is still important to monitor it and prevent it from spreading. Nunez from the fisheries department discussed how you can help in this effort.

Alicia Eck-Nunez - Marine Reserves Operations Manager, Fisheries Department
"We contacted our partners at the Ministry of Tourism who then contacted BTB and other partners with the education and outreach materials asking all our stakeholders that come in contact with the reef environment to please if you see the disease go the AGRRA.org website, report the disease, if you can take pictures of it to send to us we need to know if it is already spreading to the rest of the country so we could respond. We also ask everybody that goes diving to please maintain your buoyancy, don't take back anything from the reef meaning trash, you know don't take back anything from the reef and if you must take back trash put it in a sealed bag and take it back with you, we also ask that you rinse your gears before, during in between dives and after dives."

If you go diving and snorkeling anywhere in the country, be on the alert for this infected corals and snap a picture if you can, but DO NOT break off a piece of the corals, just take a picture and send it to the fisheries department. Their email is fisheries_department@fisheries.gov.bze or you can call the office at 224-4552. 

You can also contact SEA or Fragments of Hope, the Coastal Zone Management Authority and Healthy Reefs for Healthy People if you want to provide any additional information. We will keep following this story.