22 June 2020

Changi check up with sign of dugong

There are lush patches of seagrasses at the mouth of Changi Creek. This morning, I saw one dugong feeding trail there!
Dugong feeding trail at Changi
There were no bleaching corals or cnidarians, and no bleaching seagrasses. Although the sponge diversity is very low, there is still a wide variety of echinoderms on the seagrassy areas.

The seagrasses look fine today. I didn't see any that were bleaching. On our last survey here in Jan 2020, I saw large patches of seagrasses bleaching. Spoon seagrass (with large leaf blades) is the most common. There was a small patch of Needle seagrass (with narrow leaf blades) in the middle of the lagoon. The seagrasses are dotted with a variety of colourful animals.
Spoon seagrass (Halophila ovalis) and Needle seagrass (Halodule sp.)
Changi is echinoderm heaven! As usual, there were lots of sea cucumbers on the seagrass meadows. There were a lot of Pink warty sea cucumbers, I only saw one small Thorny sea cucumber. There were also many small Garlic bread sea cucumbers, many Ball sea cucumbers. I one Orange sea cucumber, one Beige sea cucumber and one Smooth sea cucumber. There were a few small Sponge synaptid sea cucumbers on the Melted chocolate sponge. Other sea cucumbers seen by the rest of the team include a Plasticky sea cucumber and a small Sea Apple sea cucumber.
Today, I saw a few Biscuit sea stars - two large ones and many tiny ones. I also saw one Cake sea star and one feather star. The rest of the team also saw Sand stars, a Spiny sea star and an Eight-armed sand star. I didn't come across any sea urchins but the rest of the team saw a White salmacis sea urchin.
There seems to be a 'bloom' of Hairy sea hares - I saw many tiny to small ones among the seagrasses. I also saw one large Spotted sea hare. I saw a few Fan shells but no outbreak of mussels.
In the murky waters were all kinds of fishes. I saw a small Blue-spotted fantail ray, a small Brown sweetlips that resembles a leaf, many tiny Twig-like half beaks that resemble floating twigs. I saw a small Milk-spotted pufferfish and a Fan-bellied filefish, but didn't manage a photo of them. There were also many crabs busy in the water.
There is news of mass coral bleaching sightings on our Southern shores in June 2020. So I also check on how the corals are doing at Changi. People are often surprised to learn we have corals on our Northern shores. Zebra corals in fact commonly encrust rocky intertidal areas of our Northern shores. Here's my sightings, shared for further study by others.
I came across several Haddon's carpet anemones and they were not bleaching. Many of them  had Tiny carpet anemoneshrimps living on them.
I also saw several cerianthids, some Flowery sea pens, a Sea pencil, some sea fans and many patches of zoanthids. None of these cnidarians were bleaching.
Unlike our last survey in Jan 2020, today most of the rocky shores were coated with Melted chocolate sponge, with very few sponges of other kinds. I didn't come across any nudibranchs, though the rest of the team saw some.

Sightings by others in the team

Jianlin Liu

Kelvin Yong

Loh Kok Sheng


Marcus Ng

Also surveying Changi today

Toh Chay Hoon


Abel Yeo


Dayna Cheah


Richard Kuah


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