Gabriel Delgado

The disease, stony coral tissue loss disease, was first identified in Florida in 2014, but has traveled south, possibly on boats, to the far reaches of the Caribbean Sea since then. It was first spotted on the eastern coast of Puerto Rico in 2019, according to the Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment Organization and has since spread from the small islands east of Puerto Rico to the northern and southern shores of the big island. The disease “poses a particularly significant threat to Caribbean reefs” because it affects some 20 species of hard coral, and its mortality rate can be anywhere between 66 and 100 percent. Because it spreads among coral colonies by water circulation, it creates an explosion of infections that lead to mass mortality, making it very difficult to keep at bay. It takes hundreds of years for the colonies to regrow.

Ink, chalk, graphite on Strathmore watercolor paper, mounted on canvas.

22x30 in