| Introduction | The Key | Specific Diseases | Reading | You Can Do |
This is an offline version of the Coral Disease Page©. It is designed for field use on a lap top computer equipped with a web browser. All external links have been removed.
This site is designed to promote the exchange of information about diseases of hard or stony corals (scleractinians) and other reef organisms. These diseases have in common the ability to destroy the plants and animals that build the structural framework known as a coral reef. The remainder of this site consists of an introduction to diseases of coral reef ecosystems and a series of pages that discuss various diseases of hard corals, sea fans, and coralline algae that have been recognized on reefs thus far. You can go to information on a specific disease, or use a key that allows you to identify a potential disease based on some characteristic visual signs of each disease (abnormalities in appearance, behavior, or morphology). We have also included a list of additional reading and some ideas for what you can do to help.
We've updated this site to include information of several more diseases, including red-band disease of sea fans and a section on tumors and other skeletal anomalies of corals. The offline version has been updated as well.
The information has been collected and prepared in this format by Harry B. McCarty and Esther C. Peters from our work and that of many colleagues around the world, to whom we are indebted for their permission to reproduce many of the images. We are responsible for the content and any errors that may occur.
If you find this offline version useful, please let us know, using the mail link in the on-line version. There is no registration fee, but if we have your e-mail address, we will keep you posted on any future updates, as they become available.
| Introduction | The Key | Specific Diseases | Reading | You Can Do |
©All images displayed on this site are property of the photographers listed in the individual credits and are subject to all copyrights. In addition, the name "The Coral Disease Page" is copyrighted by H.B. McCarty and E.C. Peters, 1998. All rights reserved.