Survey of Black Band Disease-affected scleractinian corals via drone-based observations in Okinawa, Japan

Diseases are a growing global threat to scleractinian corals. This study used relatively inexpensive commercial drone flown simultaneously along with reef walking/snorkeling confirm the presence of cyanobacterial Black Band Disease (BBD) on in subtropical Okinawa, Japan. At surveyed reef, corals included encrusting forms (12.57% ± 5.72 coverage), followed by massive/submassive (6.09% 4.05) and tabular (2.66% 1.19). Our survey is unique that research has not been previously applied BBD surveys, ground truthing. Thus, this can be regarded as an example using drones during coral disease assessments.