Oil slick still seen on Seringat-Kias

As the evening low tides start, we survey Lazarus Island and the artificial Seringat-Kias lagoon (also called Eagle Bay by boaters). 

These shores were impacted by the 400tonne Pasir Panjang oil spill on 14 Jun 2024. As well as the 2024 global mass coral bleaching. Sadly, I sense about 50% of seagrasses in Eagle Bay are gone with patches of oil slick still present. On a happier note, the corals at Lazarus Island seemed to have pulled through.

We start the survey on the rocky southern tip of Lazarus. As usual, there aren't many hard corals. Most were boulder shaped. We did not manage to check this shore at the height of the 2024 mass coral bleaching. Today, the corals seem mostly alright. I didn't see any bleaching, most had only small or no dead patches. On the rocky shore facing Kusu Island, there are still lots of Asparagus flowery soft corals, and I also saw a few small Leathery soft coral colonies.

Kok Sheng aka The Human Climbing Crab, had a look at the corals growing on the seawall at Seringat-Kias. I will update with his photos later. As well as sightings by the rest of the team.

At Eagle Bay (Seringat-Kias), there is still oil slick 4 months after the oil spill hit this shore! I saw about 10 small patches oil slick. Also stretches of what seems to be oiled sand, and very dark blue sand where other people had dug into the sand. There were many people in the Bay as it was a weekend, playing in the water and on the sand.

I sense about 50% of seagrasses have disappeared since our last survey in Jan 2014. It is mostly bare sand where there used to be dense growths of seagrasses. In deeper water, also appears to be bare of seagrasses, I didn't see any seagrasses in the middle portion of the Bay. There were large clumps of green seaweeds here and there, and I saw broken off pieces of Noodle seagrass washed up on the shore.

There was still a large patch of seagrass on the Southern arm of the Bay - mostly Ribbon seagrass and Needle seagrass (narrow leaves). On the Northern arm, there were sprinkles of Spoon seagrass (tiny leaves) and tiny patches of Noodle seagrass and Needle seagrass. I only saw one clump of Tape seagrass with long leaves. It also had female flowers. I saw about 10 other clumps with leaves cropped short. One with male flowers.

I also checked up on the Critically Endangered Bonduc. It was badly chewed up with hardly any leaves on it in Mar 2021, but had recovered in Nov 2022. It was flourishing in Jan 2024 and today it seems to have grown even larger and was flowering and in good health. This is a very prickly bad-tempered plant! Its fierce hooks will catch onto clothing (or bare skin!) and are hard to dislodge. There are only a few plants known in the wild in Singapore. The one on Lazarus is a male plant, I have seen the female plant on Pulau Semakau. Another special plant there is a Brown-scurfy fig and it is still doing well, producing figs.

The main component of the washed up litter on the shore were single-use water cups. These are not 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.

The southern shore of Lazarus that we surveyed today has seawalls. But this is minor compared to the massive reclamation that created Seringat-Kias, which buried the submerged reefs of Seringat and Kias and connected it to the natural Lazarus Island. A causeway bridge joins these with St. John's Island. Here's more about what was done to create Seringat-Kias. Besides the lush seagrasses in the large artificial lagoon, mangroves and seagrasses have also settled in a smaller Mangrove Lagoon - I last surveyed this in Nov 2020.

Lazarus Island in the Singapore Blue Plan

The cluster of Kusu, Lazarus and St. John's Islands has been recommended by the Singapore Blue Plan 2018 for elevated protection status.

The Blue Plan highlights that Lazarus, St. John’s, and Kusu Islands are established sites for coral nurseries as their shoreline offers ideal sheltered areas for growth of corals. Designating these islands as No-fishing Areas can bolster their rehabilitation. Protecting a larger cluster of islands means zonation plans for use can be implemented to manage tourism and human impacts.

DOWNLOAD the Plan, SUPPORT the Plan! More on the Singapore Blue Plan 2018 site.

Photos by others on the survey

Jianlin Liu


Others on this survey: Marcus Ng, Loh Kok Sheng, Che Cheng Neo, Vincent Choo, Adrianne Lee