Research Product

During the post-8th International Coral Reef Symposium field trip to the eastern Caribbean region of Panama, 3-5 July 1996, we observed an extensive outbreak of a new and significant disease of the scleractinian corals Montastraeafaveolata and M annularis. The first reported signs of "yellow-band disease" were on a few colonies of M.faveolata on reefs off Key West, Florida (Reeves 1994; Santavy and Peters 1997). This disease is being monitored in the Keys, and histopathological and microbiological studies were initiated. We are now calling this "yellow-blotch disease" based on the unusual pattern of yellowish tissue lightening and to distinguish it from the yellow-band disease reported by Korrubel and colleagues in the Arabian Gulf.