Henderson, Leslie

2023 USVI SeaVentures Strike Team Annual Summary Report

2023

Sea Ventures Inc.; NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program

"In the United States Virgin Islands (USVI) SeaVentures has two active coral disease strike teams funded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coral Reef Conservation Program project 'Coral Disease Response in the US Caribbean'. These teams work to apply antibiotics (Base2B:Amoxicillin ratio 8:1) to active stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) lesions at multiple sites across the territory on a regular basis (Hull Bay, Cane Bay, Northstar, Carambola, Butler Bay, and Frederiksted Pier). Treatments began in March 2022 and as of December 2023, a total of 3300 corals have been treated across the 6 sites with less treated in 2023 compared to 2022. Overall, numbers of every species treated were less in 2023 than 2022. Both Agaricia species and Siderastrea siderea increased in percentage of treatments performed, mostly due to the lack of availability of other higher priority species to treat. Decreases in treatment numbers are not due to less dives being conducted but rather less corals needing treatment. As the disease epidemic progresses, corals more susceptible to SCTLD die out while resistant or resilient ones need less treatment less frequently. In addition, a thermal bleaching event occurred September - December 2023 which drastically reduced the number of corals treated both due to the inability to distinguish between bleaching and disease stress, as well as a decrease in disease lesions presenting overall. In 2023, divers spent approximately 210 cumulative hours underwater. On average, each diver treated approximately 4.8 corals per dive."

stony coral tissue loss disease, SCTLD, antibiotic treatment, US Virgin Islands, USVI

NOS

OCM

FY2023 CRCP Project ID 31331; Project Title: Coral Disease Response in the US Caribbean; Principal Investigator: Leslie Henderson