An Initial Assessment of Coral Disease Prevalence on Tourism Areas of Pasir Putih Beach, Java Sea

Abstract

The increasing tourist industry along Java seashore might cause pollution and harm the coral reef ecosystems. The present study was carried out to quantify indicators of coral disease prevalence at sites inside and outside in the snorkeling tourism hotspot of Pasir Putih coastal waters, East Java, Indonesia. Coral disease rapid assessment was conducted in June, 2015. The prevalence of coral disease on the reef building corals was calculated as the mean percentage of coral colonies affected by disease per 50 m2 transect quadrats. Results of the present study showed that total of 78 coral colonies observed, 33 colonies were affected by diseases. Mean prevalence for all diseases observed was 42.30±4.9% SE. The disease prevalence at site inside the snorkeling tourism hotspot (50.00%) was higher than that of outside (38.88 %). Six disease states detected were white syndrome (13.89±1.31% SE), white band (7.41±2.62% SE), yellow blotch (3.70±2.62% SE), dark spot syndrome (3.70%), white plague (1.85%) and growth anomaly (1.85%). The prevalences of disease in the coral genus were found to be 17.95% in Acropora sp., 12.82% in Favia sp., 1.28% in Diploastrea sp., 3.85±2.71% SE in Porites sp., 2.56% in Favites sp., 1.28% in Goniastrea sp. and 1.28% in Montipora sp. To our knowledge, this is the first study of quantitatively coral disease on Pasir Putih coastal waters, Java Sea. This early study revealed that tourism activity might be resulting in the decrease of the coral health in the coral tourism areas.