Date: Thu, 20 Nov 97 07:17:59 -0500 From: Jason & Deborah DeSalvo Subject: Bleaching on Grand Cayman Dear Coral Listers-- My wife Deborah and I just returned from 5 days in Grand Cayman (actuallyour first time diving on the "Big" Island -- we've been to Cayman Bracand Little Cayman several times). The prevailing winds made it necessary to dive the North Side of theIsland our first two days there, and while the wall formations werespectacular, we couldn't believe the amount of coral bleaching ocurringin the colonies of Montastraea faveolata (Mountainous StarCoral--including the Flatten Plate Morphotype)! We estimated (usingadmittedly unscientific methods) that between 50 and 60% of thesecolonies were effected at the five (5) North Wall dive sites we dove!Interestingly, we saw hardly any bleaching on the same kinds of coralcolonies on the West Wall. I've been diving in the Carribean for fifteen years and have neverobserved such a wide-spread bleaching event. Is the scientific community aware of this going on on Grand Cayman'sNorth Wall? I haven't read anything about it, but it was the mostobvious and widespread case of coral bleaching I've ever seen.