Porites ulcerative white spot disease: description, prevalence, and host range of a new coral disease affecting Indo-Pacific reefs.

The results of an investigation of a new coral disease affecting Indo-Pacific reefs are presented. Porites ulcerative white spot disease (PUWS) is characterized by discrete, bleached, round foci, 3 to 5 mm in diameter, that may either regress or progress to full tissue-thickness ulcerations that coalesce, occasionally resulting in colony mortality. Monitoring of 25 diseased and 5 healthy reference colonies for 17 mo revealed that advanced stages of the disease were characterized by lesion coalescence, partial colony death (i.