Bath Corals 28Mar2024 and 1Mar2015

With the collaboration of Dr. Elon Cadogan of CORALL Barbados, on Mar 28, 2024, I made a brief visit to Bath around the Low Tide when wave action is minimal and underwater visibility highest. One objective I had was  to examine the fairly numerous brain corals in the “Platform Lagoon” to see if they had been affected by Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease which ravaged corals on the west coast beginning circa Nov 2022.

I postulated that as this site is flushed continuously with Atlantic ocean water coming from the east and should be comparatively free of water from other islands*, the corals would be SCTLD-free.
*While the general circulation is east to west, there is much greater chance of mixing with Caribbean water in the lee of the island, e.g., from flushing of bilges of large vessels in Bridgetown harbour – see Rosenau et al., 2021 – than on the east, Atlantic coast.

I last visited this site on Mar 1, 2015 with my Dal colleague Bob Scheibling – see pics below.

I am posting below all of the corals I was able to photograph in the order they were encountered.* I believe most or all of the brain corals are Pseudodiploria strigosa which is highly susceptible to the disease; a few are Porites asteroides, which has low susceptibility.  I can see no evidence of SCTLD, and no substantial difference from the general condition of the corals in 2015, and I invite comment – one expert I consulted  agreed with my conclusion based on the photos. *Because of strong currents and a limited period when the site is safe to visit, it’s difficult to do a more systematic survey. We went from the landward edge of ‘the platform within the lagoon, hugged the southern edge and worked our way to the seaward edge (see map). Then the tide changed and a strong current pushed us out of the lagoon,

Click on images for larger versions

Corals viewed on Mar 28, 2024

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Corals viewed on Mar 1, 2015

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