Subject: Re: Bleaching Already Date: Fri, 21 May 1999 13:27:04 -0400 (EDT) From: Pam Muller To: Danny Gleason CC: coral-list@coral.aoml.noaa.gov Our reef-dwelling forams (Amphistegina gibbosa) continue their "90's habit of "bleaching" in the early spring. This year, about 30% of the specimens exhibited some mottling in early May. My casual observation is that our forams seem to parallel Palythoa and, to a lesser extent, Acaricia, with respect to bleaching. On May 4 I noted partly bleached Agaricia at 30 m and some light/purple color in Siderastrea and occassionally some pale Montastrea at 15 m at Conch Reef. Unfortunately, I have no idea if that bleaching was residual from last year. We are also seeing a type of infestation in our forams we haven't noticed before. We haven't ID'ed it yet, but the culprit may be opportunistic cyanobactera. Pamela Hallock Muller Department of Marine Science University of South Florida 140 Seventh Avenue South St. Petersburg, FL 33701 USA pmuller@marine.usf.edu Phone: 727-553-1567 FAX: 727-553-1189 NOTE NEW AREA CODE!!!