Dr. James Cervino’s 2005 Coral Report
A coral pathologist’s survey of the reef in front of the proposed Bakers Bay golf course, made during the bleaching event of October 2005.
Updated October 4, 2026
In October 2005, coral pathologist Dr. James Cervino of Pace University and his research assistant came to Great Guana Cay to survey the reef off the island’s north end, directly in front of the site of the proposed Bakers Bay Golf & Ocean Club. They arrived in the middle of a severe warm-water bleaching event. His field observations, and the statement against the golf course that went with them, were circulated to the coral reef science community that fall. They remain one of the few independent records of the reef’s condition before construction began.
The development went ahead. The fertilizer runoff, algae overgrowth and coral disease Dr. Cervino warned about are what Dr. Tom Goreau’s later monitoring went on to document; see Bakers Bay Golf Course and Coral Reef Decline. Dr. Michael Risk’s 2004 assessment of the same reef reached the same conclusions in February 2004.
Dr. Cervino’s report was lightly edited for clarity by Erik Gauger in October 2026: spelling, punctuation and scientific names corrected, disease abbreviations spelled out, and the species notes set as a list. The observations, figures and arguments are his.
By Dr. James Cervino
October 2005
A Statement Opposing the Golf Course
What follows are observations of thermal coral bleaching and coral disease on Great Guana Cay, Bahamas, and a statement opposing any nutrient-enriching golf course surrounding these sensitive reef systems.
This development will fertilize the reef and increase the abundance of macroalgae in this habitat, threatening a coral reef ecosystem that is already under thermal stress. We are surprised that a team of marine scientists financially supported by the developer would claim that a golf course and dredging project will not harm the coral tissue, or the symbiotic algae living in it, on reefs just 10 meters from the proposed development site.
Many published studies show how sediment loading can affect coral physiology (for example, E. Peters, 1984, “A survey of cellular reactions to environmental stress and disease in Caribbean scleractinian corals,” Helgoländer Meeresuntersuchungen 37: 113–137). I would be glad to supply these papers to Discovery Land Company and its scientific advisors.
Observations
Coral diversity was high, and overall reef health was good before this recent bleaching event, in which corals expel their symbiotic algae under heat stress. Water temperatures were 84.5°F at 60–70 feet and 86°F at the surface.
On the north side of the island, at its farthest tip and adjacent to the proposed development and golf course, thermal bleaching was in critical stages in the following corals.
Method: a 90-meter horizontal transect, counted in 1-square-meter quadrats, at 12 meters depth.
Of 1,001 individual colonies of Montastraea sp. (not M. cavernosa) [the boulder star coral complex, since reclassified as Orbicella — ed.], 959 were in critical stages of bleaching. This is the only species for which I counted exact numbers. The figures for the species below are approximate estimates.
Species by species
- Gorgonians (Plexaurella nutans, Eunicea calculata): 25–30% in critical bleaching. Pseudopterogorgia sp. were unaffected.
- Yellow band disease: one case. Signs of yellow band disease can be difficult to count on bleached tissue, but this one case was clear.
- Acropora palmata (elkhorn coral), at roughly 1–2 meters below the surface: all older colonies were dead (local reports blame white band disease and storm damage). New recruits were present, however, with no white pox or white band lesions. No living Acropora cervicornis (staghorn coral) was seen, only dead rubble.
- Montastraea cavernosa: brown spot lesions on 25% of colonies observed, at every dive site on both the north and south sides.
- Porites sp.: 50% in critical stages of thermal bleaching, which was surprising given this genus’s ability to withstand high thermal stress.
- Siderastrea siderea: every colony showed minor or early-stage dark spot disease, or past tissue death with exposed skeleton.
- Stephanocoenia michelinii: no bleaching seen, but dead tissue was evident, cause unknown. None showed dark spot lesions on the tissue surface.
- Diploria strigosa: every colony showed minor to middle stages of bleaching.
- Meandrina meandrites: all appeared healthy. Very few were in direct sunlight.
- Colpophyllia natans: every colony showed minor to middle stages of bleaching. Parrotfish bite lesions were present but small, about 1–2 cm on average. There was not a single case of the 10–20 inch lesions appearing within 24 hours that were seen during the 1996–97 debate over whether parrotfish biting or “rapid wasting disease” was to blame. None of the lesions seen this time had a border of dead tissue after the bite.
- Leptoseris cucullata: all appeared healthy.
- Agaricia lamarcki: colonies in direct light were mildly bleached; those in darker areas all appeared healthy.
- Agaricia tenuifolia: all in middle to late stages of bleaching. Symbiotic algae could be seen streaming out in mucus above the corallites.
- Madracis formosa: mild bleaching.
- Oculina tenella: mild bleaching.
- Sea fans: all appeared healthy apart from two cases of sea fan disease affecting older colonies. All of the healthy sea fans were juveniles, 5–10 cm long.
- Reef fish: abundant, and diversity appeared high.
Macroalgae and the Ecology of This Habitat
Coral reefs are among the most nutrient-sensitive ecosystems on Earth. A reef can become “eutrophic,” overgrown by weedy algae, at nutrient levels so low they would signal nutrient starvation in any other ecosystem (P. Bell, 1992, “Eutrophication and coral reefs: some examples in the Great Barrier Reef lagoon,” Water Research 26: 553–568; B. Lapointe & M. Clark, 1992, “Nutrient inputs from the watershed and coastal eutrophication in the Florida Keys,” Estuaries 15: 465–476; B. Lapointe, in press, “Eutrophication thresholds for macroalgal overgrowth of coral reefs,” in K. Thacker, ed., Protecting Jamaica’s Coral Reefs: Water Quality Issues).
An immediate stop-work order should therefore be placed on the proposed development, to keep human-caused nutrients from Discovery Land Company out of the waters surrounding Great Guana Cay. This is needed to prevent the corals from being overgrown and killed by weedy algae. The golf course will be a point source of pollution and will create dangerously high nutrient levels, and any nutrient drainage into this area will cause the reefs to deteriorate further.
That includes nutrients from dredging, which will also load sediment onto the corals on the north and south sides of the island, as well as from construction of the golf course and the excess sewage that usually comes with projects like this. Discovery Land Company’s environmental impact assessment plans to dredge part of this one-mile island, dump the sediment onto the surrounding reef, and build the golf course on soil fill mixed with quartz sand. The island’s limestone will act as a permeable filter, letting the nutrients leach out onto the reef, where they will feed invasive algae.
The dominant macroalgae were species that indicate moderate or low nutrient levels, mainly Dictyota pinnatifida, Laurencia poiteaui, Halimeda sp., Udotea sp. and Penicillus sp. These were not at invasive levels at the time. Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), including Lyngbya penicilliformis, were in low abundance. Only stressed corals were competing with Lyngbya, and all dead corals were overgrown with mixed algal turf. High densities of cyanobacteria indicate excessive pollution, phosphorus in particular, and are common near sewage outfalls. On shallow and deeper sandy bottoms the algae were more typical of low nutrient levels, mainly Halimeda, Udotea and Penicillus. Seagrass beds everywhere were healthy, with little macroalgal overgrowth.
Nutrient analysis is needed now to establish a baseline of the water chemistry on the reef around the proposed development site and around Great Guana Cay as a whole.
It is important to note that Lapointe and Bell have established acceptable water quality standards for coral reefs, and that their work shows over-fertilization, not a lack of fish and sea urchins, to be the main reason corals are being almost completely replaced by weedy algae (Goreau et al., Global Coral Reef Alliance).
Nutrient Thresholds for Healthy Reefs
Recent research in the Caribbean and on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has established the critical levels of nitrogen and phosphorus that must not be exceeded if reefs are to stay healthy and free of algal overgrowth (Lapointe et al., 1992, 1993; Bell, 1992). These concentrations are:
- Nitrogen (as nitrate and ammonia): 1.0 micromoles per liter
- Phosphorus (as orthophosphate and organic phosphate): 0.1 micromoles per liter
Those are the molecular concentration units used by chemists and oceanographers. In the weight units more often used in the wastewater literature, they translate to:
- Nitrogen: 0.014 ppm N, or 0.040 ppm NO3
- Phosphorus: 0.003 ppm P, or 0.007 ppm PO4
The 1–2 mm layer of living tissue on the surface of these corals is being subjected to extreme conditions, and right now it is living at its critical maximum stress threshold.
Closing
Given the state of the world’s reefs, is it wise for the Bahamian government and an American company to allow this project to go forward? Thermal bleaching will intensify over the next century as heat-trapping gases continue to rise. Until carbon dioxide emissions are brought under control, would it not be wise to at least address the local threats to coral reefs?
My research assistant and I would like to thank the local environmental group on Great Guana Cay for their efforts to preserve and respect this coral reef ecosystem.
— Dr. James Cervino