Top: Tip of spur at Vauxhall Reef in early 2023 >85% living coral. Bottom: Tip of spur in early 2025: living coral cover <10%
I have observed, by snorkelling, the Vauxhall Fringing Reef in the MPA (Marine Protected Area) on the west coast of Barbados in the early months of each year from 2015 to 2020, and subsequently in the early months of 2023, 2024 and 2025.
In these “snapshot views”, recorded in photos and videos, Vauxhall reef was seen as very healthy, in marked contrast to other Fringing Reefs in the MPA.
Significant deterioration of Vauxhall Reef began in 2023 and continued through 2024 and 2025 – “The Years of Vicissitudes” – due to factors of external origin.
In early 2023, I observed the initial spread of SCTLD (Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease) on the reef.
In 2024, I viewed the effects of extreme warming events in fall of 2023, those mostly on Acroporoid corals and on Millepora complanata (a “Stinging Coral”).
In 2025, I viewed the massive physical disruption of the outer spurs which had been 80-95% covered with living corals, this attributable to swells associated with Hurricane Beryl of June 30/July 1, 2024.
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