SCTLD

Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD)

Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD), discovered in 2014, is a contagious waterborne disease killing stony corals in the Caribbean off Jamaica, Mexico, Saint Maarten, the US Virgin Islands, Dominican Republic, Turks & Caicos Islands, Saint-Martin, Belize, Sint Eustatius, The Bahamas, Puerto Rico, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guadeloupe, St. Lucia, Honduras and Martinique. Sick colonies display multifocal lytic necrosis, appearing as lesions, that start in the gastrodermis and extend out to the surface epithelia. Highly susceptible species are the meandroid corals–i.e., pillar corals (Dendrogyra cylindrus), elliptical star corals (Dichocoenia stokesii), smooth flower corals (Eusmilia fastigiata) and maze corals (Meandrina spp.). Starlet corals that develop numerous "blotchy" lesions, as well as diverse brain and star (boulder) corals, are also dying fairly quickly, followed by star corals (Orbicella spp., Montastraea cavernosa) and other coral species .