CORAL DISEASE RAPID RESPONSE TRAINING WORKSHOP

PROGRAM OVERVIEW
A group of up to 15 scientists and resource managers from the region will receive classroom and in water training on the identification of coral diseases and approaches to characterize a disease outbreak and better determine the causes and linkages with anthropogenic stressors.

Participants will receive training in survey approaches for coral disease and sampling strategies.

Each participant will have the opportunity to sample a branching coral and a massive coral with disease, including initial recorded and photographic documentation, collection of mucus samples, water and sediment samples adjacent to the coral, and a total of three samples from each diseased coral species (at the disease interface, 10-20 cm from the diseased tissue and one remote uninfected control).

Samples are small (2-3 cm circular core, with tissue and skeleton removed to about 1-2 cm; 2-3 cm long branch ); these are either frozen or fixed in a formaldehyde based fixative (Z-fix) for processing off Cayman Islands.

Please contact us for further information.