Probably our largest submerged reef, most of the team surveys the south-eastern portion of Beting Bemban Besar. This area also faces the
ongoing Pulau Sudong reclamation.
We find the seagrass meadows are growing well with signs of dugong. Corals are no longer bleaching, though rather sparse. Interesting marine life is also seen. A smaller team surveys for the first time, a submerged reef between it and Pulau Semakau. I will do a separate post for their survey.
When we last surveyed at the beginning of
mass coral bleaching in
May 2024, we noticed widespread stress signs in hard and soft corals and estimate about 10-20% were outright bleaching. Today, the south-eastern reef edge that I surveyed was rather quiet. There were not many live corals, mostly small colonies. Boulder bore corals, Anemone corals were the most commonly encountered, as well as some small plate corals. I saw a few small live Mole mushroom and Tongue mushroom corals. On the higher shore, Che Cheng saw the start of a field of Branching montipora corals on the northern side, I only saw a few scattered clumps. I didn't see any hard corals that were bleaching.
I saw a wide variety of
leathery soft corals, but all colonies were rather small and scattered far apart. None were bleaching or stressed. I saw a few other cnidarians like Leathery sea fan, Asparagus flowery soft corals, sea mat zoanthids. They were alright.
As usual, the team makes all the special finds. A large group of Common sea stars, a Giant carpet anemone with many small 'Nemo's, another with an anemone shrimp. As well as octopuses, fishes and nudibranchs. The shell of a dead Fluted giant clam was also seen, no live clams on this trip.
I saw a few possible dugong feeding trails near our landing point - southern portion of the reef flat facing Pulau Semakau. The last time I saw these were in the northern portion facing Pulau Hantu in
Jul 2020. These trails are formed when dugongs chomp up seagrasses including their roots, leaving a shallow meandering furrow of about equal width and depth.
Seagrasses now cover most of the reef flat, and densely enough that from a distance, the shore looks green! I sense an improvement compared our last survey in
Jul 2024, when seagrasses evenly covered the shores (not much bare sand). Seagrasses now more densely cover the centre of the reef flat with sprinkles all the way to the reef edge.
Does this mean a return to lush seagrass meadows on Beting Bemban Besar, and nearby Pulau Semakau? I do hope so! A comparison of satellite maps shows seagrasses meadows as large dark smudges on BBB and Pulau Semakau in 2008 - much reduced since the seagrasses started dying out in the 2010s.
Today, most of the seagrasses were fresh and green, not heavily coated in hairy epiphytes like last year. Although there are still many patches with light epiphyte cover. All the usual Southern seagrass species were seen. The most abundant seagrass was
Spoon seagrass with tiny and with large leaves. Next most abundant are Needle seagrass with narrow and broad leaves. I also saw patches of
Sickle seagrass,
Serrated ribbon seagrass and
Noodle seagrass. I saw many clumps of
Tape seagrass, many with longish leaves, longer than 30cm, and those that were cropped were not that short.
The seagrasses are alive with animals. Ramose murex snails of about the same size were seen by several members. I also saw a live Cone snail. Tammy saw a small Alligator pipefish, which was also seen at Terumbu Raya. It was great to see familiar seagrass dwellers like Noble volute, Window pane shells, Fan clam shells, hermit crabs, snapping shrimps. Fresh Acorn worm poop shows healthy ground.
I came across a broken fish trap in the middle of the seagrass meadows. I also saw I saw a round hole similar to those I saw dug out at
Terumbu Raya the day before - uniform in size about 40cm in diameter and about 15cm deep. Done by people for a project?
Future of Beting Bemban BesarBeting Bemban Besar lies close to the
planned 31ha reclamation at Eastern tip of Pulau Sudong. Other shores near the impact zone include Terumbu Bemban and Terumbu Raya.
Works seem to be going on in earnest at the reclamation site today.
Large areas nearby are also 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.
Posts by others on this surveyChe Cheng NeoTammy LimRichard KuahLiz LimOthers on the Beting Bemban Besar survey: Tommy Tan, Muhd Nasry
