Recent extensive suveys in 1992-94 of the entire rocky shore coastline in the Muscat Area and the Dimaniyat Islands concurred with the findings of the 1982 study. Feeding scars were also more common on corals in the Damaniyats than along the Capital Area shoreline, but feeding scars were only on selected coral species. No indication has been found of mass feeding on corals by Crown of Thorns starfish in Oman, nor any evidence that starfish populations have ever risen above modest numbers. Other isolated disturbances have recently taken place on corals in the Muscat area which are more difficult to explain than Crown of Thorns predation, but which apparently have also occurred in the past. On sufaces of corals where this condition has been recognised the exposed skeletonis pure white, but it becomes coated with sediment and algae with time, while the part of the coral which retains tissue continues to grow, resultingin strangely shaped corals with large cavities in their skeletal bases.
White areas are bare coral skeleton from which coral tissue has recently decomposed.
There is, as yet, no known physical or biological explanation for the condition, and it is usually found in limited and isolated circumstances, although White Band Disease has recently been reported to be a serious factor in the decline of the dominant reef forming Acroporid species in the Caribbean. Whether these upwelling effects were important in this particular White Band Disease episode can not be determined. However, many corals in shallow water in the Musandam show the same misshapen growth that results from an occurrence of White Band Disease, suggesting that upwelling effects are not necessary for this condition to occur. Another even more unusual and infrequent coral disease that also has been previously reported elsewhere has occurred at two sites in Bandar Khayran. This is a cancerous condition where the growing tissues of corals lose their normal tissue structure and their capability to deposit calcium carbonate in a normal manner to form normal calycal and basal structures.