Wildlife

Caribbean Reefs Damaged By Mysterious Disease

There’s a mysterious disease currently ravaging the reefs of the Caribbeans, leaving only white skeletons of corals behind.

This was recently discovered by divers, all of whom were busy monitoring reefs in the U.S. Virgin Islands back in January. As they were collecting data, they started noticing some white lesions breaking up the colorful tissues of corals. This continued for quite some time, with some suffering for up to four weeks, while some died by the very next day, marked by their white stony skeletons. More than half of the reef has already suffered.

For now, scientists are suspecting that the mysterious disease could be stony coral tissue loss disease, sometimes referred to as SCTLD, or “skittle-D.” The disease is supposedly responsible for one of the worst coral disease outbreak the world has ever experienced, and was first seen in Florida back in 2014.