A tiny team survey this shore right next to the Landfill in glorious weather.
The seagrasses are still doing well! Corals seemed to have survived mass coral bleaching, and the 'field' of branching coral seems to be expanding. Ian managed to document a large sea turtle and large shark!
There has never been a lot of hard corals on this shore. For the first time in a long while, we are surveying after the Sargassum season and could thus reach the reef edge safely. Last year, we did not have enough low spring tides to check this shore at the height of
mass coral bleaching and only surveyed in
Nov 2024. It was a relief to see that the situation seem similar to our last survey in
Oct 2023. Today, the situation seems unchanged. Most of the corals here are boulder shaped corals, including a few large colonies. I saw the usual common
Pore corals,
Anemone corals,
Cauliflower corals and various common
Merulinid corals. I didn't see any that were bleaching.
I came across two large 'fields' of
Branching montipora coral (about 6m x 6m). On our last survey in
Nov 2024 I only saw one patch. We first saw small clumps during our last survey in
Oct 2023.
There have never been many or large
Leathery soft corals on this shore. Today, I saw a few small colonies of various kinds. None were bleaching. There are still many
Giant carpet anemones as well as
Fire anemones and others like
Frilly anemones. I didn't see any that were bleaching. But all the
Sea mat zoanthids I saw were very pale.
The sight of little lumps on the ground made my heart stop. But they were just Acorn worm poop and not the dreaded Horse mussels that infested the area. We haven't seen those since our last survey in in
Nov 2024. Perhaps the closure of the fish farm had something to do with this? We also saw some Common sea stars, Noble volutes. I saw a small horseshoe crab and the rare Eggwhite moon snail which is commonly seen here.
As on our last survey in
Nov 2024, the seagrass coverage remains dense near the Landfill seawall and in the mouth of the stream from the mangroves. Fresh green
Spoon seagrass and
Needle seagrass uniformly covered the area and in the stream bed lots other seagrasses including
Noodle seagrass and
Sickle seagrass - most generally free of epiphytes. But the
Tape seagrass I saw remained cropped, with only a few clumps with long leaves towards the reef edge. Alas, I looked and couldn't find any
dugong feeding trails today. In
Nov 2024, Kok Sheng saw some in seagrasses near the Landfill wall! The last time this was observed was in
2011.
Today, for the first time, I walked much further north to check the seagrass situation and was pleasantly surprised to see that the pools of water were almost entirely densely covered in seagrasses of various kinds. They were heavily covered in a slimy layer though, and there were dense growths of fluffy seaweeds among them. It is exciting to see good seagrass growths because much of the seagrasses on Pulau Semakau (as well as Cyrene and other southern shores) inexplicably died out at around 2010.
Every time we survey this shore, we check out the Barramundi Group's fish farm that is located very close to natural mangroves, reefs and seagrass meadows there.
On our
Nov 2024 survey, the farm seems totally abandoned. The situation seems unchanged today 6 months later. The big barge with equipment and supplies, and floating dorm for workers were gone. And cages were falling apart with derelict small boats nearby. During our last survey in
Oct 2023, the farm was not yet in this state of decay. In
Jul 2023, it was reported that Barramundi Group will stop stocking its sites off Pulau Semakau, Pulau Senang and St John’s Island until “an efficacious vaccine is available” against the scale drop disease virus (SDDV). SDDV was first formally described in Singapore farmed fish in 2011 and can kill more than half of the barramundi raised in a cage. The virus has caused “significant mortalities and financial losses” for Barramundi Group's Singapore operations, which recorded a loss of $31.9 million for FY2022.
More about Pulau SemakauIt is NOT true that the construction of the Landfill created the marine life found on Pulau Semakau. The marine life was there long before the Landfill was built.
Just as Changi Airport and Changi Beach are not the same even though they are near one another and share a name, Pulau Semakau is NOT the same as the Semakau Landfill. The Landfill was created by destroying all of Pulau Saking, and about half of the original Pulau Semakau by building a very long seawall. Fortunately, the landfill was constructed and is managed in such a way that the original mangroves, seagrass meadows and reefs on Pulau Semakau were allowed to remain.
What is the fate of Pulau Semakau South?These shores slated for massive reclamation outlined recently in the
Long-Term Plan Review.
The Singapore Blue Plan 2018Pulau Semakau and nearby islands and submerged reefs have been recommended by the Singapore Blue Plan 2018 for Immediate Conservation Priority. The Blue Plan recommends the intertidal and subtidal marine areas of Pulau Semakau and adjacent Pulau Hantu, and Pulau Jong to be designated Marine Reserve.
The Blue Plan highlights that Pulau Semakau and its associated patch reefs comprise many ecosystems: coral reefs, mangrove areas, intertidal sandflats, seagrass meadows, and coral reefs. The subtidal area of Pulau Jong is larger than the terrestrial area. Pulau Hantu is a popular dive site has seen increasing interest in the past decade due to biodiversity awareness. If protection is accorded to these three islands, 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 this surveyRichard KuahLiz LimOthers on this survey: Ian Mun.
