Mass coral bleaching and oil spill impact on a restricted East Coast Park site

Corals, seagrasses, mangroves have settled on artificial shores at East Coast Park! Thanks to NParks for obtaining permission for us to survey this restricted site.

Because the site is closed to the public, it appears that oil has not been removed from this shore. We saw much impact from the 400tonne Pasir Panjang oil spill on 14 Jun 2024. Mass coral bleaching is also ongoing here. We estimate that up to 80% of corals were bleaching.

To emphasise before we show all the scary photos, the shore is NOT dead. We did not see any dead animals. And we saw many signs of life. There was a little sea star that might be the Pentaceraster that we have been seeing lately on our seagrass meadows. Nasry also saw a special fish. There were active crab burrows on the high shore, and the usual animals commonly seen on the shore.

Includes photos by Tammy Lim.

At the corner of a breakwater, floating things will gather and pool. Such as mangrove seedlings, seagrass seeds, and also litter and oil.

Some mangroves have indeed settled naturally on the back of the breakwater wall. Two of the bigger trees here were producing flowers and seedlings, but their prop roots were heavily coated in oil. Smaller saplings were festooned with oil-slicked litter. Although it is painful to see this, I know that it often causes more harm than good to try to 'clean' mangroves after an oil spill.

At the corners of the breakwater and the seawall next to the canal, there were small slicks and a rainbow sheen the water. The waterline along the rest of the shore was brownish murk - possibly suspended oil? 

The biggest blob of oil was like a pancake: 10cm thick and about 80cm long and 40cm wide. There were a few smaller blobs. Towards the seaward side, there was oil in my footprints, suggesting oil is seeping into the sand. On the highest shores, I noticed 'burnt' tips of coastal plants which might have been dipping into oil floating in the water at a higher tide. 

Corals have settled naturally on the 2.5km seawall that stretches to Marina Bay. 

Photos by Tammy Lim.

Our shores are currently also being impacted by mass coral bleaching. We estimate that 80% of corals growing on the seaward side of the 2.5km seawall were bleaching, while 20% on the inner side facing the lagoon were bleaching. Here's a bad video I took of the inner side and the seawall.

Ian took an important drone video of the 2.5km seawall. The aftermath of two impacts at the same time is clear: oil spill and mass coral bleaching. The clip is so detailed, I can see oil pooling in cup-shaped coral colonies, similar to what we saw in our survey of the other end of East Coast Park on 22 Jun 2024.

I checked the inner breakwater, 100% of the few plate-forming corals were bleaching. I also saw some clumps of Zoanthids which seemed okay.

The tide didn't seem as low as we expected and the water was murky at the shoreline. I'm hoping this is why I couldn't see as much seagrass as on our previous survey in Jul 2023. But I did see clumps of Tape seagrass, both on the low water mark and in deeper water in the middle of the lagoon. All the clumps had nice long leaves, I didn't see any with cropped leaves. One clump had developing female flowers. The most common seagrasses remains Spoon seagrasses (both small and large leaf blades) and Needle seagrass (both skinny and broad leaf blades). I saw patches of Noodle seagrass.

This shore is closed to the public and thus not cleaned as regularly as our recreational beaches. There has thus always been a large and growing pile of litter here. Fortunately, the litter on the high shore seems clean of oil, probably washed up BEFORE the oil spill. Oil-coated litter means the oil stays in the system for a longer time.

On the low shore, however, I saw lots of oiled litter. Including many single-use water cups, which commonly wash up on beaches along the ferry routes. These arenot commonly used by beach goers or the local boating or fishing community. But these single-use water cups are apparently given out to passengers on ferries. It seems no facilities are provided at any of the piers/terminals under MPA's charge for vessels to responsibly dispose of trash generated during their operation. More in this post.

This 'unintended experiment' of a shore that is not cleaned may show whether our marine life is resilient enough to survive an oil spill AND mass coral bleaching. We hope to return soon to see how this special shore is doing in the months ahead.

High resolution photos of this survey on wildsingapore flickr.

See East Coast Shores for yourself!

Although this particular shore is off-limits without a permit, you can see for yourself the amazing marine life on other East Coast shores! These shores are easy for ordinary people to explore at low spring tide. More details in "East Coast Park - Surprising intertidal adventures for the family".

Corals at another part of East Coast Park which is not restricted.

Photos by others on this survey

Tammy Lim


Others on the survey: Vincent Choo, Nasry Muhd, Ian Mun.