The seagrass meadows on this artificial shore appear as lush as they were when I last saw them on
May 2018.
And the sand bar continues to teem with Button snails, sand dollars and other small creatures!
On
May 2018, I noticed it expanded greatly since
Jul 2017. As before, the species were mostly
Needle seagrass (with broad and narrow leaf blades) and
Spoon seagrass with large leaf blades.
There was also a small patch of
Sickle seagrass.
I didn't see much marine life in the seagrass meadows. While there were many
Orange-striped hermit crabs, some
Black-lipped conch. But I saw only one
Thorny sea cucumber,
Pink warty sea cucumber,
Fan clam shell,
Window pane shell, one
Haddon's carpet anemone. The rest of the team saw a
Fig snail and a
Grey bonnet snail as well as other interesting creatures.
The sand bar seems similar to what I saw in
May 2018. I first noticed in
July 2017 that the sand bar appears to have changed in shape, to become shorter and broader, compared to our last survey in
Feb 2016.
The sandbar is teeming with burrowing life. I saw many
Ball moon snails, many
Weasel olive snails, abundant living
Button snails, and abundant small
Cake sand dollars. Here's a video of Button snails, the predators that eat them, and what happens after they die.
There are signs of severe erosion on the shore.
Marine trash seen include what seems to be a TV monitor, one grasscutter nylon string and many golf balls.
Let's hope this shore will continue to flourish until we can return.
Photos by others on this trip
Parizad Nasheer
Kelvin Yong
Say Chong
Lisa Lim
Camile Lee
Shawne Goh
