http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp.../coral_disease Flesh-Eating Disease Kills Staghorn Coral
KEY WEST, Fla. - An unidentified flesh-eating disease is killing staghorn coral in the Florida Keys.
Staghorn coral, so named because of its antler-like branches, is already in steep demise in the Keys.
Since the 1970s, 80 to 90 percent of the island chain's reef tract has died, according to the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
Pollution, algae blooms, sediment and a host of diseases have been blamed, among them coral bleaching, black-band and white-band disease and white plague. But this coral-tissue-eating disease appears to be a newcomer.
"A lot of very freshly exposed skeletons alerted me," said Dana Williams, a postdoctoral associate at the University of Miami. "But we have no idea what it is."
The scientists determined that the disease could be spread by the small coral snail, which eats coral, but do not yet know whether humans can transmit it too.
Scientists at the Hollings Marine Laboratory in South Carolina are trying to identify the unknown disease.
Williams and Margaret Miller, an ecologist with the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, first detected bald patches of staghorn at two reefs off Key Largo last April.
NOAA sealed off the small reefs for two months, fearful that the malady could be spread by boats, divers and snorkelers.
In field tests, scientists pressed fragments of healthy coral against diseased branches, and watched as the six- to eight-inch fragments died within four to five days.
The team later detected the disease present in 14 out of 17 sites.
Another survey this past February revealed that just 10 percent of each infected colony was alive, Williams said.
:'( :'( :'(
OmarD