On a drizzly evening, a small team surveyed the artificial lagoon at Seringat-Kias.
Seagrasses have settled in the lagoon, with sea stars and other marine life. On the seawall, there was even a
Giant clam!
Seringat-Kias was created by reclaiming the submerged reefs of Seringat and Kias. One of the touted features on this island is the C-shaped 1km long artificial lagoon. Here's more about
what was done to create Seringat-Kias. There's marine life on the artificial shore as well as on the natural shores of Lazarus Island.
Kok Sheng pointed out the many huge
Forskal's sidegill slugs at the water's edge.
I also saw several egg ribbons (some pink, others white), probably laid by these enormous slugs.
Another special find was the
Clear sundial snail. I saw two of them.
The most abundant mollusc on the shore were
Bazillion snails. There were also some
Dubious nerites. There were many
Oval moon snails and one
Spotted moon snail. Other molluscs included some small
Window-pane shells and
egg capsules of squid.
There were also a few large
Fan shell clams among the seagrasses.
There were not many sea anemones. I only saw one
Giant carpet anemone, one
Peachia anemone and one
Pearly anemone. I didn't see any
Haddon's carpet anemones. Kok Sheng saw a
Haeckel's anemone!
There were several
Common cerianthids, some with
Phoronid worms, and two
Slender sea fans. As night fell, I saw
Spotted moon crabs, tiny to small
Flower crabs and other
Swimming crabs.
There were many
Common sea stars, many in 'mating' position. But my special find was the smallest Common sea star I have ever seen. Its arms was hardly longer than a Bazillion snail. Kok Sheng also found a baby
Knobbly sea star.
There were not many other echinoderms. I saw one
Remarkable sea cucumber that looked ill with several Bazillion snails that look like they were eating it. Also several skeletons of the
Thick-edged sand dollar but no live ones, and one small
Garlic bread sea cucumber. I didn't see any sea urchins.
Some corals and
zoanthids grew on the artificial seawalls. Most were not bleaching although the
Zebra corals looked rather pale.
The southern side of the lagoon had only
Needle seagrass (narrow leaf blade). The northern side also had
Spoon seagrass (tiny leaf blade). Kok Sheng saw
Sickle seagrass growing in deeper water.
There was a bloom of
Slender pom pom red seaweed, as well as
Sea lettuce green seaweed. With large quantities of these seaweeds washing up on the shore.
The trash situation at the lagoon seems much better than on our last trip here in
Aug 2015.
We didn't come across nets or people fishing or trapping. There were a few leisure craft in the lagoon as usual.
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