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Unidentified flesh-eating disease destroying
staghorn coral
The Associated Press
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.
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Information from: The Miami
Herald.
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