Seashore begins at Marina East

Nearly ten years since my last visit to this shore! Thanks to Kok Sheng for visiting beforehand and sharing that this shore is now accessible once again.

Although the shore is not very rich (yet?), there's already lots of seagrasses and signs of returning life. It will be exciting to see whether it will return to its former glory. On the way to the shore, I noticed some small dead fishes floating on the seaward side of the Marina Barrage. And there is a green bloom of algae inside the Marina Reservoir.


Spoon seagrasses covered a large part of the shore. In some parts, so densely that the leaf blades were sticking up.

There was a patch of Needle seagrass, with a large Haddon's carpet anemone.

There was in intriguing patch of seagrass with leaf blades sticking straight up. It was well within the super soft part of the shore, so I couldn't get closer.

This is the closest look I could get with Small Swimming Camera. I think it's Noodle seagrass because the other kinds of seagrasses wouldn't stand up like this out of water.

The most abundant creature on the shore were Bazillion snails.

The empty Bazillion snail shells were taken over by countless Tidal hermit crabs. There were also a few Orange-striped hermit crabs but they were mostly small.

There were also lots of Dubious nerites, tiny swimming crabs, and some Haddon's carpet anemones. I saw the skeleton of a Thick-edged sand dollar that was common here in the past. Here's what I saw here in Dec 2008 and Nov 2008.

I think this is a pair of Tiger moon snails. Mating?

The seawalls were rather bare. The rocks were covered with some scummy growth (cyanobacteria?) so there were few barnacles, and thus few drills.

But I did see a few Nerite snails, some onch slugs. And when it got dark, I heard a pair of Ferocious crabs fighting. Surprisingly, I saw one live Chut-chut snail, more often found in mangroves.

And already, there was one mangrove seedling taking root on the seawall!

A lush mangrove had settled on this shore next to the seawall. I first saw this in 2008. The mangrove were cleared, and the shores off limits when works on the MCE started in 2009.

On the other end of the lagoon is some kind of work jetty with barges and trucks.

Trash has collected at one end.

Not a lot, but some look like they've been there for a while.

On the way to the shore, I noticed some small dead fishes floating on the seaward side of the Marina Barrage. And there is a green bloom of algae inside the Marina Reservoir. I'm not sure what is going on.

It was a lovely evening on a shore at the heart of the city. I hope this shore can soon recover to its former glory!

Posts by others on this trip

• Chris Wong on facebook.
• Dayna Cheah on facebook.

On the same low spring tide, Abel surveyed Pasir Ris