Tobago's Stony Corals Threatened
Our corals are the canaries in the coalmine of climate change. Dr Anjani Ganase is warning of the disease that can wipe out our impressive boulder brain corals. Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) is officially in the Southern Caribbean. Curaçao, Bonaire, Venezuela and even Grenada have reported outbreaks. It is only a matter of time until SCTLD reaches Trinidad and Tobago, and we are not ready. Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) was first recorded in Grenada in 2015 with many confirmed sightings in 2018 and 2019. Bonaire and Venezuela made observations at the end of 2022, while Curaçao observed in the beginning of 2023. Within a single year, many of the reefs of Bonaire and Curaçao have suffered mass die off of their precious brain corals. The rate of mortality is much higher than any previous disease outbreak encountered on Caribbean corals. White-band disease killed over 80 % of the Acropora corals (two species) found throughout the Caribbean within a decade. Ac