We return to this submerged reef for the first time since
Aug 2016, when it was hit by mass coral bleaching.
There are not many corals on this rocky submerged reef. In Aug 2016, we estimated about 20-30% of the hard corals are bleaching. About 20-40% of the leathery soft corals were bleaching. We estimate 20-30% of the corals have died recently.
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| Mass coral bleaching on Terumbu Pempang Laut in Aug 2016. |
Today, it was a relief to see that most of the corals were no longer bleaching, although many corals look like they took a beating with large dead patches. The Giant clam is still alright, and seagrasses seem to be doing very well.
Terumbu Pempang Laut is one of our largest submerged reefs and located near industrial islands such as Jurong Island and Pulau Bukom.
Here's a brief clip of the reef. This shore does not have many intertidal corals even in the past.
Most of the large corals I saw were
Merulinid corals. I saw a few colonies with bleaching patches, many with dead portions.
I saw a few
Boulder pore corals, many with large dead portions, some were pale. The
Branching pore corals seemed to do better.
I saw a few
Anemone corals, one
Carnation coral, one
Galaxy coral, one
Brain coral, all were alright. I saw many
Cauliflower corals, some were alright, others had large dead portions.
I saw a few
leathery soft corals, though not as many as before the mass coral bleaching. Those I saw were mostly alright. Although this one had very odd bumps on it.
And this small leathery soft coral had dead portions on the edges while the centre was still alright.
It was nice to see some
Asparagus flowery soft coral that were not bleaching.
I saw a few
Giant carpet anemones, and a cluster of many
Magnificent anemones, none had anemonefishes. I saw one
Haddon's carpet anemone and one
Cerianthid. But I didn't come across any
Frilly anemones or
Fire anemones.
The
Fluted giant clam on the shore seems alright! We saw it first in
Jun 2014.
There were a few
Common sea stars near the seagrass meadows in the middle of the reef, most were in 'mating' position. The sandy area also had a lot of
Oval moon snails.
Throughout our trip, a flock of Little terns were busy catching tiny fishes and chasing one another. They also rested on the shore.
Pei Yan flew the drone and got footage of a shark! This also shows the extent of seaweed bloom on the reefs.
I was glad to see that the seagrass meadows appear more lush. There were denser growths of
Spoon seagrass (large and small leaf blades) and
Sickle seagrass, although many patches were heavily covered in epiphytes.
I also saw
Tape seagrass, some cropped, others with long leaf blades. None of them were flowering. The black filamentous cyanobacteria stuff is no longer coating the seagrassy area. But I didn't any dugong feeding trails unlike our last trip in
Aug 2016.
Here's a brief clip of the seagrass meadows on Terumbu Pempang Laut.
As is common on many of our submerged reefs, there are signs of boat strikes.
The evidence is obvious, a deep hole with piles of corals on the edges where the ship 'ploughed' up the ground. But nature soon takes over and corals, fish and other animals settle into the deep pool.
It was a scorching hot day. Ironically, the cloud of emissions that built up over the petrochemical plants on Pulau Bukom blocked the morning sun out for a while.
Terumbu Pemang Laut is one of
the existing natural shores that may be impacted by the
landuse plan by the Ministry of National Development released in Jan 2013 in response to the Populations White Paper with a 6.9 million population target. The dotted margined blue areas are "Possible Future Reclamation".
The other shores impacted by this plan include Pulau Hantu, Terumbu Pempang Darat, Terumbu Pempang Tengah and Pulau Jong and Terumbu Semakau.
Singapore's submerged reefs are often out of sight under the high tide and thus forgotten. Let's hope Terumbu Pempang Laut stays safe until we can visit again.
Photos shared by others on this trip
Others on this trip: Richard Kuah, Lisa Lim.
