Antonius,-A. Distribution and dynamics of coral diseases in the eastern Red Sea. PROCEEDINGS-OF-THE-SIXTH- INTERNATIONAL-CORAL-REEF-SYMPOSIUM,-TOWNSVILLE,- AUSTRALIA,-8th-12th-AUGUST-1988.-VOLUME-2:-CONTRIBUTED- PAPERS-MINI-SYMPOSIUM-1-TO-10-14. Choat,-J.H.;Barnes,- D.;Borowitzka,-M.A.;Coll,-J.C.;Davies,-P.J.;Flood,- P.;Hatcher,-B.G.;Hopley,-D.;et-al.-eds.. pp. 293-298. Occurrence and distribution of 4 coral diseases: White Band Disease (WBD), Tissue Bleaching (TBL) Shut-Down-Reaction (SDR), together also listed as White Syndromes (WS), and Black Band Disease (BBD) were investigated through 6 years at 33 sites along the Saudi Arabian Red Sea of Jeddah (with one exception) but may spread to Yanbu and Haql in the future. The disease disappears during the cold season, WBD, with seasonal fluctuations, occurs all year round at all sites investigated (with one exception), and seems to respond to a more complicated set of parameters. TBL and SDR were found to be short term phenomena of the warm rainy season. Unfavorable natural and man-made influences combine in Jeddah's fjord- like Sharm Abhur, where the reef building coral population may face extinction in the near future.