There are amazing reefs off Serapong Golf Course! Today, a small team had a long look despite the drizzly start.
As usual, an overdose of corals with other special finds like a baby giant clam!
Today, Kok Sheng literally did the entire shore. From the bridge to Sentosa, all the way to the beacon at Sentosa Cove! I couldn't keep up, but managed to cover some of the amazing shores found here.
We started at the old jetty at the Serapong Golf Course. Thanks to Sheila for showing me an easy way to get down the seawall nearby. Here's a look at the amazing marine life crowding under the jetty!
There were lots of
Barrel sponges and also lots of
red feather stars today!
Sheila found this pretty brown-and-white feather star that I seldom see on our shores. We also saw two all black ones.
Oh, a little
Reef octopus! As I put my camera underwater, close to him to take his photo, he wrapped his tentacles around my fingers! We also saw
egg capsules of a squid.
We also came across a ball of writhing little
Striped eel-tail catfishes.
Among the amazing anemones I saw were
Magnificent anemones,
Frilly sea anemones and the
Wiggly reef star anemone. Kok Sheng saw special anemones like the
Alicia sea anemone and
Fire anemone!
There are stretches of this shore that remind us of the colourful shores at
Tuas, with plenty of
flowery soft corals,
Button zoanthids,
sea fans,
stinging hydroids and
candy hydroids.
There were also colourful sponges in all kinds of shapes: the intriguing
Pink puff ball sponge,
Blue spatula sponge,
Yellow volcano sponge and
Lumpy pink sponges.
I saw this large
Black spotted flatworm that is commonly encountered. Kok Sheng also saw a
Dawn flatworm.
Other marine life seen include
corallimorphs and
zoanthids of all kinds. Josephine found the first nudibranch:
Jorunna funebris. We later saw a
Phyllidieila nigra.
As with most of Singapore's shores, most of the corals are
Favid corals.
There were also lots of other kinds of common corals such as:
Cauliflower corals,
Branching Montipora corals,
Carnation corals,
Galaxy corals,
Anemone corals and
Ridged corals. Also many
Disk corals and one
Brain coral. Kok Sheng saw lots more corals!
We nervously keep an eye out for coral bleaching. A few small colonies of hard corals and leathery soft corals were very pale or yellowish, and some of the
Asparagus flowery soft corals were rather pale.
We saw one large
Diadema sea urchin. Next to it, a
Carnation hard coral that looks like it is starting to bleach.
Some stretches of shore was thick with corals and sponges of all kinds.
We also did the usual stretch of shore as the tide turned. I was astounded to see many colonies of
Cauliflower corals and they were all nice and brown, i.e., NOT bleaching.
There were also patches of branching
Montipora corals. This shore reminds me very much of
the Sentosa reefs that were reclained for the Resorts World integrated resort. Here's more photos of
what was lost to reclamation.
The big surprise was to find a young
Burrowing giant clam! It was only about 6cm long! We looked but couldn't find any others nearby. This shows that the shore is indeed quite healthy.
We came across two patches of
Tape seagrass.
I saw a few small patches of
Spoon seagrass.
This rich stretch of shore with very large colonies of
leathery soft corals lies at the mouth of a seawater lagoon with Singapore's largest stand of
Bakau pasir, a Vulnerable mangrove tree. With the support of Sheila, there are
efforts to collect the propagules of these mangroves for replanting elsewhere in Singapore.
After reading about our
trip in April 2011, Dr John Yong, our mangrove guru, shared that the presence of mangroves in Berhala lagoon (outlined in green) probably contributes to the healthy reefs here (outlined in yellow). Thus protecting mangroves also helps protect reefs and visa versa. Thanks Dr Yong! Indeed! We have yet to be able to explore the tantalizing reef outlined in orange as it seems to require a much lower tide. I'm quite certain it is just as, if not more, spectacular than what we have seen so far!
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| Click on image for larger view. |
Thanks to Josephine (in red) from Sentosa Development Corp for arranging the trip. Also to Shao Wei who unfortunately couldn't join us today. And Sheila of Serapong Golf Course for looking after us as always. These ladies and others at Sentosa have been making these trips possible for several years. Thanks also to Kok Sheng, James and June for helping to survey the shore.
I was so glad to be able to climb down and up the seawalls! It is nearly 8 months since I broke my foot, during which I spent 4 months in a wheelchair. There were times when I didn't expect to ever be able to explore my beloved shores again. I'm so glad these worst fears didn't come true. All thanks to friends who encourage and help me along the way!
The last time we visited this shore was in
May 2012. We missed surveying this shore last year, so are glad we managed to do a check up this year. I am sure it will continue to do well under the good care of Sheila and all our friends at Sentosa.
Check out
Kok Sheng's awesome blog post with lots of gorgeous photos of all the amazing marine life he saw on his very long march too and fro on this shore.
Photos by others on this trip
