Uploaded June 2023 | Updated September 2026, 8 hours ago
Researchers at NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory and the Cooperative Institute for Marine & Atmospheric Studies have experimentally demonstrated that Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) can be transported via simulated ship’s ballast water, and that a commonly-used method of ballast water treatment (ultraviolet radiation, or UV) was ineffective in preventing the disease from being transmitted in water. This suggests that ships may be a mode by which this disease has spread so rapidly throughout the Caribbean, and that they may pose a threat to the spread of SCTLD to reefs in the Pacific. To learn more visit: aoml.noaa.gov/ship-ballast-deadly-coral-disease
Video credit: NOAA / AOML / Jackie Bloome
Researchers at NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory and the Cooperative Institute for Marine & Atmospheric Studies have experimentally demonstrated that Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) can be transported via simulated ship’s ballast water, and that a commonly-used method of ballast water treatment (ultraviolet radiation, or UV) was ineffective in preventing the disease from being transmitted in water. This suggests that ships may be a mode by which this disease has spread so rapidly throughout the Caribbean, and that they may pose a threat to the spread of SCTLD to reefs in the Pacific. To learn more visit: aoml.noaa.gov/ship-ballast-deadly-coral-disease
Video credit: NOAA / AOML / Jackie Bloome
