Terumbu Pempang Laut is one of our largest submerged reefs. Today, a small team surveys and find 7 giant clams! As well as a live Cone snail. Dugong feeding trails were also seen.
We couldn't survey last year during the mass coral bleaching event, so we are relieved to see many healthy corals today.
Terumbu Pempang Laut is one of our largest submerged reefs and located near industrial islands such as Jurong Island and Pulau Bukom.
Today, we saw 7
Burrowing giant clams, spread throughout the reef flat - because our team was spread out. On past surveys, we have come across one or two of these clams here, but never so many! In the collage are the clams Kelvin and I saw. Richard saw a live Cone snail! They also saw lots of Blue-spotted fantail rays, the nudibranchs and flatworms, and colourful crabs common on our shores. I will update later with finds by the rest of the team when they upload their photos. Sadly, we didn't see any Common sea stars.
There used to be a large
Fluted giant clam near the landing point. But I didn't see it on our last trip here in
May 2023. This photo is of our last sighing of it during our
Jan 2022 survey. We saw it first in
Jun 2014.
There has never been a lot of hard corals on this shore. But there is a good variety of common corals with some forming quite large colonies. We did not survey this shore during last year's
mass coral bleaching event because we ran out of low spring tides - having to cover other shores including those impacted by the Pasir Panjang oil spill.
So it was a relief to see that the hard coral situation seems similar to our last survey in
May 2023 and previous years. There were many large boulder shaped colonies that seemed alright, although some had dead patches. A surprising number of large Sandpaper corals - all okay though some had large dead patches. Also a few clumps of
Branching montipora, sparsely distributed - not yet forming a 'field'. Scattered colonies of
Cauliflower corals,
Anemone corals,
Disk corals.
Towards the reef edge near the Beacon, I saw a wider variety of colonies of
leathery soft corals.
Some of them formed quite large clusters.
The seagrass situation seems good! There is a meadow of Spoon seagrass in the sandy centre of the reef flat. Although the leaves are tiny, they are fresh and green. So much so that a band of green could be seen from a distance.
It was here that I saw many
dugong feeding trails. These trails are formed when dugongs chomp up seagrasses including their roots, leaving a shallow meandering furrow of about equal width and depth. The last time I saw many trails was in
Dec 2018. Also in
Aug 2016. I didn't see any on our last survey in
May 2023, only a few in
Jan 22. There were clearer trails in
Aug 2021, some on
Jul 2020, none in
May 2019. The first time I noticed them was in
May 2012.
The seagrass situation seems similar to our last survey in
May 2023. There were sprinkles of seagrass on almost the entire reef flat from the reef edge to the centre. On the sand bars and among the more reefy parts. In some large parts, the seagrasses were growing more densely. There were large stretches of seagrasses heavily covered in epiphytes. But most were fresh and green. The most common were
Spoon seagrass (mostly small leaves) and
Sickle seagrass. I saw some clumps of
Tape seagrass, still cropped short.
What is the fate of Terumbu Pempang Laut?Pulau Hantu and all the terumbus west of it are slated for massive reclamation outlined recently in the
Long-Term Plan Review. Singapore's submerged reefs are often out of sight under the high tide and thus forgotten.
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 survey
Kelvin YongRichard KuahOthers on this survey: Tammy Lim, Adriane Lee, Marcus Ng, Jonathan Tan.
