Caribbean coral reefs face disease threat ^{CEFR B1}

Caribbean coral reefs already face warmer seas, acidification, overfishing and pollution, and the Institute of Marine Affairs (IMA) has warned of another urgent threat: Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD). Scientists first noted SCTLD in Florida in 2014, and it has since reached The Bahamas, The Cayman Islands, Jamaica, the Dutch Caribbean and other islands across the Lesser and Greater Antilles.

The disease causes lesions where coral tissue dies; these dead areas expand as the disease advances and can kill coral within weeks to months. The pathogen spreads easily by direct contact, by water currents and by ballast water, so ports are common early sites of infection. Researchers are unsure whether bacteria alone or a mix of bacteria and a virus cause the disease. To protect reefs, some infected corals receive antibiotic treatment and others are moved to land-based facilities temporarily.

The IMA reports SCTLD has infected more than twenty of the region's forty-five stony coral species, including maze, mountainous and brain corals. Although SCTLD has not yet been confirmed in Tobago, it is present in neighbouring Grenada and some Dutch Caribbean islands. The IMA received a 2024 grant from the Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife Regional Activity Centre and in January 2025 trained with the Perry Institute of Marine Science in San Andres, Colombia. The organisation urges reporting via the seaiTT app, avoiding coral contact, sanitising diving gear and disinfecting bilge water to help protect reefs.