The team have our first look at Coney Island's shores during yesterday's low spring tide. There is a sandy stretch just opposite Pulau Ubin that has seagrasses and all kinds of interesting marine life.
We heard scary stories about sandflies on this shore, so we came fully prepared.
The largest intertidal shore at Coney Island is at Beach A.
There are some small patches of lush
Spoon seagrasses with large leaf blades. They are doing well. Not overwhelmed by ephiphytes and none were bleaching or burnt.
There were also many patches of
Hairy spoon seagrass on the seaward edge of the shore. Here's a video of them showing how our seagrasses can cope with rather murky water.
Some colourful
ascidians were also growing among and on the seagrasses. The rest of the team also saw a seagrass pipefish.
The most common hermit crab we saw was the
Tidal hermit crab with banded legs. I also saw many small
Swimming crabs in the seaward side, swimming about in the waves. The team also saw
Stone crabs.
There are lots of
tubeworms and
Haddon's carpet anemones on this shore. It overlooks Pasir Gudang port in Johor.
We all pondered upon why this carpet anemone is shaped like a hat. We saw one carpet anemone with
tiny anemone shrimps, but did not see any with
Five-spot anemone shrimps.
There were a few
Striped sand anemones in the sand, and among the seagrasses, some
Swimming anemones.
On the sandy shore, there were many
Bazillion snails and most of them were carrying at least one, some two, tiny
Snail hitching anemones. These anemones were also found on
Olive whelk snails and shells occupied by tiny hermit crabs.
We saw a few
Ball sea cucumbers and
brittle stars. The team also found some small
Plain sand stars.
The skeleton of a
Thick-edged sand dollar which we rarely see alive.
We saw a few
Sea pencils, several
Tiger moon snails, and a few
Cerianthids. Other snails seen include live
Gong-gong.
On hard surfaces, a few clumps of colourful
sponges.
There were also a few
Spiral melongena snails and their egg cases.
A large dead tree on the shore was full of life. Tiny
Lined bead anemones,
Spotted mangrove anemones. There were also many
Banded bead anemones and some big fat bead anemones too.
Scrambling on the tree were tiny
Purple climber crabs. There were also little
Periwinkle snails and lots of
Acorn barnacles.
There were various
Drill snails on the shore.
There were also
limpets and their egg masses.
Some 'missing animals' that we expected to see included
Sand bubbler crabs and
fiddler crabs. This shore is near the rocky Punggol shore at Punggol Jetty. Here's what I saw there on my last trip in
May 2015.
People do need some reminders on how to interact safely with nature.
Sadly, some people can't seem to appreciate nature without defacing it. Many people cycling through the park also had their music on full blast.
Sigh, even this tiny shore has a fish trap and lots and lots of abandoned nets. There wasn't a heavy load of litter on the shore. Possibly because it is cleaned?
Along the way, I had a peek at the seaward side of the tiny sliver of
natural mangroves that remains at Punggol. Which may be affected by
plans for massive development in the area. Something to explore another day.
On our trip, we met a group of students studying horseshoe crabs (they found a pair of mating
Coastal horseshoe crabs), a team from NParks monitoring public use of the shoreline and some small family groups have a peek at the shores.
As the sunset and the sandflies started to swarm, we left the shore.
So far, it appears our precautions have worked and none of the team report being bitten by sandflies. More about sandflies
in this ancient post which recently got a flurry of comments from people who suffered from them at Coney Island.
Posts by others on this trip
