In a small corner of Terumbu Bemban there are some of the best reefs I've seen in Singapore.
Today, some large colonies seem to have died, but other kinds of corals are doing well. We found two giant clams and saw other interesting marine life. And I narrowly missed stepping on a stonefish!
Here's a glimpse at some of the corals on this shore.
We surveyed in
Apr 2016, before the peak of mass coral bleaching. During our last survey in
Jun 2017, I did not see mass coral bleaching, although I sense about 20% of the hard corals have died and some individual corals are pale or have bleaching patches. Today, while some of the corals (like mushroom corals) seemed to have returned, others were not doing well.
The patch of
Acropora coral was mostly dead, with only a narrow edge of living corallites. It was still alive on our last survey here in
Jun 2017.
The large
Disk corals on the reef edge had many dead portions. This was not the case on our last survey here in
Jun 2017.
However, there were a lot of very large Tongue mushroom corals and some other kinds of mushroom corals too. They all look healthy.
I also saw nice healthy
Sandpaper corals and
Cauliflower corals. These are usually the first to succumb during bleaching events.
There were a variety of other colourful hard corals.
And many nice plate-forming corals too.
I saw many
Leathery soft corals and they all seemed alright.
I saw a many
Asparagus flowery soft corals and they looked alright.
I saw a few of the usual nudibranchs that we come across on our reefs.
I saw many large
Barrel sponges that were alright, although some had rotting edges at the top. I was relieved to see this since we saw dying Barrel sponges at
Sentosa Serapong last month.
There were spinkles of
Spoon seagrass, and cropped
Tape seagrass. Today I saw sprinkles of
Sickle seagrass.
We arrived at first light and caught some of the night shift as they were winding down. Such as this lively
Reef octopus
We saw two
Cushion stars, which I usually only encounter in our better reefs.
There was also a
Merten's carpet anemone, which is not very commonly seen.
The most alarming find was a
Hollow-cheek stonefish, right next to where I had decided to step! I only noticed it after I had been standing there for some time. It had lots of spines upright, ready for me in case I decided to step on it. Wow, count myself lucky today!
We didn't come across any nets or traps. The old trap has been there for a long time and is no longer functioning.
Let's hope this beautiful little reef stays safe until we get to survey again.
More finds and photos by the rest of the team who went for the trip.
By
Able Yeo
By
Nathaniel Soon
By
Liz Lim
By
Lisa Lim
By
Teo Say Chong
Mei Lin on
her blog.
Others on this trip: Jia Min, Giorgio
