Nobody Belize Me…

Black-band disease was first discovered on the reefs of Belize and Florida in 1972, and has since been identified in 26 countries including Fiji, Australia and the Philippines (Green and Bruckner, 2000). In the western Atlantic, BBD most commonly affects massive reef-building corals, but other types of stony corals and sea fans can be affected as well. Caribbean staghorn and elkhorn coral appear to be resistant to the disease (NMFS, 2001), though acroporid corals in the Red Sea and Indo-Pacific are affected by BBD. A total of 16 species have been observed with BBD in the western Atlantic, and 26 species in the Red Sea and Indo-Pacific (Green and Bruckner, 2000).
In 1972 the Meteorological Office in the Civil Aviation Department [of Belize] was upgraded to the National Meteorological Service in the Ministry of Energy and Communication. The newly formed department was charged with the development of specialized services in the areas of Agro meteorology, Climatology, Hydrometeorology whilst maintaining the traditional Aeronautical and Public Weather Forecasting. The offices of the new department were relocated to a new building that also housed at the time a newly acquired 10cm Weather Radar for use in the tracking of tropical storms threatening the country. With the help of the World Meteorological Organization networks of Climatological, Agrometeorological and Hydrometeorological Stations were established over most of the country. An aggressive recruiting and training program was then initiated. Using the WMO training guide, and fellowships provided by the United Kingdom and the United States of America, personnel were trained at the Class IV through Class I levels in the various fields of specialization.