Minutes from the Central Business District are the living reefs of Kusu Island!
We surveyed the amazing rich reef edge on Christmas Day! It was great to see the reefs were doing well.
Here's a brief video clip of this rich reef edge at sunset.
It was a relief to see the usual variety of corals.
Including many of the more delicate branching and plate-forming corals.
This is what this part of Kusu looked like during our survey in
July 2016 at the height of mass coral bleaching. At that time, we estimated about 50% of the hard corals and 50% of the leathery soft corals were bleaching. And also noticed about 5-10% of corals have died recently.
Today, there were no bleaching corals!
Among the amazing corals we saw was a huge colony of
Boulder horn coral.
There were corals growing to the outside of the seawall
Corals were also growing inside the lagoon. I was glad to see the patch of
Branching montipora coral was still there.
There was also a large colony of
Anemone coral.
However, some of the large Boulder pore corals had pale patches. But there were lots of healthy looking large
leathery soft corals and large
Asparagus flowery soft corals.
But it was good to see some
Acropora corals,
Cauliflower corals, Sandpaper corals and other interesting corals like a Trumpet coral. There were still many
Magnificent anemones on the reefs, none were bleaching. Fortunately, we didn't come across any fish traps today, unlike our last survey in
Aug 2017.
Inside the lagoon, there were
Common sea stars and
Cake sand dollars. Among the sprinkles of
Spoon seagrass with tiny leaves and
Needle seagrasses, there were lots of
Starry flatworms, some
Haddon's carpet anemones, lots of
Bazillion snails, some tiny
Window pane clams and
Black lipped conch snails. There was still a bloom of
Sea Lettuce seaweed in the big lagoon, but less than what we saw on our last survey in
Aug 2017.
In
May 2018, Kusu shores were closed after asbestos found there. According to
media articles, traces of asbestos, a hazardous material, have been discovered on Kusu Island, the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) said on Friday (May 4) after
a similar discovery on St John's Island over a week ago.
 |
Dotted yellow line indicates areas still open to the public.
Photo from Channel NewsAsia |
The cluster of Kusu, Lazarus and St. John's Islands has been recommended by the Singapore Blue Plan 2018 for elevated protection status. The Blue Plan highlights that Lazarus, St. John’s, and Kusu Islands are established sites for coral nurseries as their shoreline offers ideal sheltered areas for growth of corals. Designating these islands as No-fishing Areas can bolster their rehabilitation. Protecting a larger cluster of islands means zonation plans for use can be implemented to manage tourism and human impacts. DOWNLOAD the Plan, SUPPORT the Plan! More on the
Singapore Blue Plan 2018 site.
Let's hope this special shore stays safe until we visit again.
Photos of by others on this trip
Liz Lim
Loh Kok Sheng
Yeo Jing Ying
Lena Chow
Joleen Chan
Others on this trip: James, Yi Feng, Nicholas Yeo.
