Skeletal Eroding Band - Symptoms and History of Discovery

Symptoms and History of Discovery

Skeletal eroding band is visible as a black or dark gray band that slowly advances over corals, leaving a spotted region of dead coral in its wake. The spotted area distinguishes skeletal eroding band from black band disease, which also forms an advancing black band but leaves a completely white dead area behind it.

Skeletal eroding band was first noticed in 1988 near Papua New Guinea and then near Lizard Island in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, but was regarded as a gray variant of black band disease, as were instances off Mauritius in 1990. Surveys in 1994 in and around the Red Sea first identified the condition as a unique disease. It is now considered the commonest disease of corals in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, especially in warmer or more polluted waters.

The spread of the disease across an infected coral has been measured at 2 millimetres (0.079 in) in the Red Sea and 2 to 3 millimetres (0.079 to 0.12 in) around the Great Barrier Reef. Corals of the families and Acroporidae and especially Pocilloporidae are most vulnerable. A study in 2008 found that skeletal eroding band spread at about 2 millimetres (0.079 in) per day in colonies of Acropora muricata, eventually wiping out 95% of its victims. However, experiments showed that the disease easily infested already-dead areas of corals but did not attack undamaged corals.