A new study indicates that ships could spread a deadly coral disease across the Caribbean and Florida. The research findings at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science could help establish unique treatment and testing methods to mitigate the risks of the further spread of this disease.
Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) was noticed first in 2014 near Miami. Since then, it has spread into the Caribbean and through Florida’s Coral Reef, even in Jamaica, the US Virgin Islands, St. Maarten, and Belize.
Scientists and researchers say that transport via ship hulls, where the ship takes on ballast water in a region to keep it stable and then releases it at another port, could have contributed to the spread of this disease.
