We return to this part of the submerged reef for the first time in 5 years. It was heartening to see sprinkles of seagrasses here.
I saw a variety of corals, most were not bleaching but I did see some that were very pale.
Beting Bemban Besar lies off Pulau Semakau. Our last trip to this part of the reef was in
May 2011, just after the mass coral bleaching in 2010.
I saw two Smasher mantis shrimps. But only managed a video clip of glimpses of one.
Can you spot the pair of Elbow crabs? I think they were about to mate.
Among the other interesting animals I saw included several
Common sea stars, a
nudibranch, an
Egg-white moon snail and a
Mosaic reef crab.
How are the corals here after the global mass coral bleaching last year? Here's a video clip of the reef and some of the hard and soft corals there.
There are few large corals here and there. They were not bleaching but had portions that were dead.
I saw a variety of corals that had pink portions, probably a sign of stress.
Some corals were still pale and had dead portions. Most of the
Small goniopora corals I saw were pale, while all the
Anemone corals I saw were not. Some of the
Pore boulder corals were pale and some had pale slivers of living coral around a large dead centre. There were some
Merulinid corals (previously Family Faviidae), most were alright.
I saw a few
Cauliflower corals with most of the colony dead but small living portions not bleaching. Similarly for
Crinkled sandpaper corals.
I did see a variety of other corals, but only one or two of each kind: Two
Brain corals, a few
Disk corals, one
Galaxy coral, a few
Mole mushroom corals but no other kinds of mushroom corals.
I saw a few
Acropora corals and many small clumps of
Branching montipora coral.
I saw many
leathery soft corals of various kinds. They were not bleaching, but most were small.
I did see a few small leathery soft corals that were slightly luminous on the edges, or a strange colour.
I saw several
Flowery soft corals that were not bleaching. But I saw a few
Sea mat zoanthids that were rather pale.
I saw several
Giant carpet anemones (one with a shy Clown anemonefish), one
Haddon's carpet anemone and a few
Frilly anemones. Nick found a
Haeckel's anemone too! There were many
upside down jellyfishes among the seagrass areas.
There are sprinkles of seagrasses all over the reef from where I was. Some patches were more dense. Some seagrasses were heavily covered in epiphytes, others especially nearer the reef edge were fresh and green. I sense it is somewhat similar to what we saw 5 years ago here on
May 2011. Here's a video clip of the seagrasses.
Of note, I saw patches of
Spoon seagrasses with large leaf blades. While some of the
Tape seagrasses were cropped, others were quite long (under 1m). I saw a lot of
Serrated ribbon seagrass and some
Sickle seagrass too.
I noticed signs of what looks like a small boat strike on the reef edge. As usual, there were small boats with people fishing, and one small boat that looked like it was laying large traps. But we did not come across any fishing nets laid on the reef as we did on our last trip here in
May 2011.
This is our last evening trip. For the next few months, we look forward to predawn trips as the low spring tides occur in the early morning!
Photos by others on this trip
Others on this trip: Lisa Lim,
