Today we return to Terumbu Hantu to check for damage by the
MV Nautica.
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| Acropora coral on Terumbu Pempang Kecil |
Despite being very close to the petrochemical plants on Pulau Bukom, Pulau Hantu and the submerged reefs nearby have delicate corals and other animals in the shallow areas.
This is a photo of the MV Nautica a large live-aboard dive boat which was seen high and dry on the living reefs of Terumbu Hantu on
9 Nov 2014.
When we landed on Terumbu Hantu, we could see a large trench amidst the sargassum where the MV Nautica was seen in November.
But there was a massive growth of sargassum on the entire reef, so it was hard to tell if there was any serious damage.
Almost immediately after we landed, for the safety of the shore (we didn't want to step on corals under the seaweeds) and our safety (did NOT want to step on Mr Stonefish), we transferred to the sandy Terumbu With No Name.
We last visited both Terumbu Hantu and Terumbu Pempang Kecil in
Jun 2013. The sandy submerged reef marked with an orange * which we surveyed is one of the two unnamed reefs marked as Terumbu Pempang Kecil on the navigation maps.
As usual, the most common corals were
Favids of various colours and patterns. I didn't see any bleaching corals.
There was a nice colony of
Acropora coral, also
Cauliflower coral,
Pore coral and
Anemone corals.
I even saw mushroom corals: A
circular mushroom coral and a
Mole mushroom coral.
There were also several small
leathery soft corals, and
Asparagus flowery soft corals. They were all not bleaching.
A
Giant carpet anemone, but alas, I couldn't find any 'Nemos' in it. There were also
Frilly anemones and Chay Hoon found an
Alicia anemone.
I came across a
Ferocious reef crab having a meal of a small fish.
Jianlin found a
Spider conch! And shared a great
video clip of it hopping. The rest of the team also found special flatworms, fishes and more.
As it got dark, I had a look under the stones. There were many
Very long armed brittle stars, and under this one, a
Swimming file clam too.
There's many patches of
Spoon seagrass with tiny leaves.
Because of the huge sand bar, it is easy to land and depart from the Terumbu, so we stayed until the very last bit of sunset.
Let's hope all is ok at Terumbu Hantu as we won't have a chance to visit it for some time.
At Marina at Keppel Bay, the corals growing on the sides of the pontoon looked happy and were not bleaching.
Juria rushed over from her work meeting to join us. Thus she now holds the title of the "Worst Dressed for a Field Trip". Just with the shoes alone.
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