A seagrassy stretch of Changi is still very lively as we surveyed on a very low spring tide.
I saw Noodle seagrass for the first time north of Tanah Merah! But there were fewer Knobbly sea stars, and the seagrasses were heavily coated in epiphytes.
Among the most abundant animals on the shore this morning were
Swimming anemones and
Thorny sea cucumbersand
Pink warty sea cucumbers!
Today, there were far fewer
Knobbly sea stars compared to what we saw in
Apr 2018. I only saw one medium sized one. There were lots of tiny
Biscuit sea stars, a few
sand stars, some tiny
Cake sea stars, and a few
brittle stars. There were some
Common sea stars on the sandy area near the low water mark.
I also saw this sea star that I can't identify.
There were many large
White sea urchins. All of them were 'carrying' stuff so they are quite hard to spot. They densely covered the area but were not huddled next to one another in large numbers. I saw a few small
Black sea urchins well separated and usually hardly visible under all the stuff they were carrying. I also saw one tiny sea urchin that might be a
Passion sea urchin.
As usual, the shore is thick with
Thorny sea cucumbersand
Pink warty sea cucumbers. I also saw many
Beige sea cucumber and many buried
Remarkable sea cucumbers. There were a few
Orange sea cucumbers and some
Ball sea cucumber.
The rest of the team spotted a
Baler snail which is considered Endangered on the Singapore Red List.
As well as a
Ram's murex also listed as Endangered.
I saw many
Noble volutes including one small one riding on top of a bigger one (mating?). There were lots of Gong gong snails and many were laying eggs. I also saw many
Pink moon snails today. I came across one
Miliaris cowrie, and one
Hammer oyster. I noticed many small
Window pane shells and many young
Fan shell clams. There was also one
Singapore scallop with a
Conical slipper snail on it.
There were a lot a lot of
red-banded shrimps today. I saw a few
Penaid prawns. And lots of little
elbow crabs,
tiny Flower crabs. As well as one
Spearer mantis shrimp.
In an area that is seldom exposed even at low tide, I saw many medium-sized
Haddon's carpet anemones. They had
tiny carpet anemone shrimps as well as
Peacock tail anemone shrimps.
There were a lot of
Swimming anemones everywhere on the shore. I saw two small Tiger anemones, a few
Mini carpet anemones and one
Common peachia anemone. I saw a few
Cerianthids.
There were many
Sea pencils, some
Flowery sea pens and I saw one
Spiky sea pen with porcelain crabs in it.
There were dense growths of
Needle seagrass and
Spoon seagrass, covering almost all ground. There was very little open sandy areas below the low water line. I only saw a sprinkling of
Fern seagrasses. But I saw the patch of
Smooth ribbon seagrass that I saw in
Dec 2017, and for the first time, saw patches of Noodle seagrass! All the seagrasses were heavily covered in epiphytes. In
Apr 2018, they were quite fresh and green. Sadly, I didn't see any
dugong feeding trails today. We saw some on our last trip here in
Apr 2018,
There was a small family group who appeared to be collecting Gong-gong snails. I could hear the thud as they dropped them into their bucket. We did not come across any traps or nets. The tide ended long before sunrise! Hopefully, this shore will remain well until we can return again.
Photos by others on this trip
By
Loh Kok Sheng
By
Jonathan Tan
By
Siewmen Chong
By
Sunny Tan
By
Chay Hoon
Marcus Ng
Others on this trip: Rushan.
Meanwhile, Jianlin surveyed another part of Changi and shared these sightings...
