One of the nicest submerged reefs in Singapore, Terumbu Semakau seemed rather quiet today. We sense fewer live corals, and we still saw some corals with bleached portions.
Our last survey here was at the height of mass coral bleaching in
Jul 2016. When we estimate about 50% of the hard corals and 50% of the leathery soft corals are bleaching, and about 20% of the corals have died recently.
But we still saw some interesting marine life including healthy giant clams, lots of lively fishes and more.
Here's a video clip of the corals at Terumbu Semakau today.
This submerged reef lies next to the Semakau Landfill, which was created by building a long seawall.
Many of the
Boulder pore corals were pale or had pale or white or dead portions.
I saw a few
Brain corals that looked alright, although some had dead portions.
I saw a few
Sandpaper corals with dead portions. Many of the
Cauliflower corals I saw had small white portions, one was still pale.
I saw many Anemone corals, and other corals, mostly only one or two colonies. The large patch of Branching montipora corals and
Stumpy acropora corals were dead.
I saw many
Asparagus flowery soft corals and
leathery soft corals, they were alright.
I saw a lot of
Giant carpet anemones, none of them were bleaching and some had clown anemonefishes.
In the seagrass areas, I saw two
Fire anemones (one was bleachy) and one
Haddon's carpet anemone (rather pale).
I also saw one
Merten's carpet anemone. I saw many
Magnificent anemones, but no
Frilly anemones. The rest of the team also saw
Bubble tip anemones. All were not bleaching.
I saw many fishes swimming in shallow water as well as the water at the reef edge. Here's two filefishes. I actually only saw one in the field and saw the second one only when I got home!
The seagrasses have not recovered. Heavily covered in epiphytes,
Spoon seagrass cover much of the shallow lagoons, with sprinkles of
Serrated ribbon seagrass and
Tape seagrass, mostly cropped. It's quite similar to what we saw in
July 2016.
There used to be lush seagrass meadows on Terumbu Semakau. Here's what the seagrass meadows looked like when we visited in
June 2010.
Terumbu Semakau lies next to the Semakau Landfill and close to the petrochemical plants on Pulau Bukom.
It was a scorching hot still blue-sky day. The emissions from the petrochemical plants on Pulau Bukom hung over the island. While a brown hazy layer was clearly seen on the horizon, from industries on Jurong Island?
On the way, we saw a barge full of pigs being towed towards Singapore. We learn that such a barge comes in every day. Dead pigs and pig shit is just tossed over the side. As a result, large sharks often follow the barge.
As we passed Pulau Jong, which is cloaked in one of the rare coastal forest in Singapore, I notice a large tree that looked like it was dying. If it falls over, it will damage the forest which is already suffering from landslides in the past.
There are many threats to our shores. I do hope they will stay well until we can visit again.
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