Pulau Jong is among the last untouched islands in Singapore. It has not been
reclaimed or directly impacted by development. Pulau Jong is what all our
Southern islands looked like before they were reclaimed.
We often see many Giant clams on this island and today we saw two! We also check
for and are glad that there is no mass coral bleaching on this shore today.
This is the other smaller
Fluted giant clam we saw today. Giant clams can also
suffer from bleaching, so I'm glad to see that both are alright.
I paid my respects to the remains of Mama Jong. This enormous Giant clam is
called Mama Jong because her babies were a part of
Dr Neo Mei Lin's work. She has been loved and
monitored for a long time. We found her dead on our
Jun 2018 survey.
There are not a lot of hard corals on Pulau Jong. Most of them were
alright. Only a few were were showing stress (paler than usual or with
bleaching portions) or with recently dead patches. It certainly was nothing like
the
mass coral bleaching that I saw here in 2016.
Here's a compilation of some of the hard corals I saw today, with a ruler for
further study by others.
There are many
leathery soft corals on this shore. Today, I feel they are not as
big or as plentiful as during our last survey in
Jun 2019.
Most of them were alright, only a few small colonies were bleaching. I saw many
Asparagus flowery soft corals and they were alright. There are also many Frilly
sea anemones, none were bleaching although one was rather pale.
One of the
Asparagus flowery soft corals was infested with
Tiny colourfulbrittle stars!
Other interesting animals commonly seen on this shore include the
Ferocious reefcrab with angry red eyes. There were also lots of
Black long sea cucumbers. The
Cheesecake nudibranch and
Pimply nudibranch are commonly seen on our shores. I
also saw two recently dead
Keeled heart urchins.
Most of the island is rocky. But there is a small patch of sand in the
middle.
There is not a lot of seagrasses growing on Pulau Jong. I saw a sparse
sprinkling of
Sickle seagrass on the eastern sand patches of the island. The
seagrass were all healthy and I didn't see any burnt seagrasses as I did
on our survey on
Jun 2018.
A natural coastal forest cloaks the little island. This habitat is now rare in
Singapore and so the island is home to some rare plants. The natural cliffs are
constantly eroding and thus tree falls and landslides are a feature of this
habitat.
Among the rare coastal plants that can be found here is
Delek Air
which is listed as 'Endangered' on the Red List of threatened plants of
Singapore. Today, they were blooming!
The
Sargassum was really starting to bloom on this shore. Making it a challenge
to survey the reef edges.
I saw this small sampan with three people and several large fish traps stop
briefly at the beacon area. One person got into the water with a dive tank, then
got out again. They then zoomed away from Pulau Jong.
There was one large fish trap 'stored' on the high shore above the high water
mark. We saw this on our last survey here in
Jun 2019
as well as on past trips.
The island lies right next to the Jong Fairway, a major 'highway' used by many
huge vessels like containerships.
Dubbed the 'char siew pau' island because of its cute dumpling shape, Pulau Jong
has a huge reef flat that is exposed at low spring tide. This reef flat together
with the domed island is said to resemble the silhouette of a Chinese sailing
junk, thus 'Jong'.
We were blessed with a gorgeous sunrise, good weather and fine company. I hope
the shore stays safe until we can visit again.
Future of Pulau Jong?Pulau Jong is one of
the existing natural shores that may be impacted by the landuse plan by the Ministry of National Development released in
Jan 2013 in response to the Populations White Paper with a 6.9 million
population target. The dotted margined blue areas are "Possible Future
Reclamation". The other shores impacted by this plan include Pulau Hantu,
Terumbu Pempang Darat, Terumbu Pempang Tengah and Terumbu Semakau.
The Singapore Blue Plan 2018As part of the cluster
around Pulau Semakau, Pulau Jong has been recommended by the Singapore Blue Plan
2018 for Immediate Conservation Priority.
The Blue Plan highlights
that Pulau Semakau and its associated patch reefs comprise many ecosystems:
coral reefs, mangrove areas, intertidal sandflats, seagrass meadows, and coral
reefs. The subtidal area of Pulau Jong is larger than the terrestrial area.
Pulau Hantu is a popular dive site has seen increasing interest in the past
decade due to biodiversity awareness. If protection is accorded to these three
islands, zonation plans for use can be implemented to manage tourism and human
impacts.
More about our
Crazy Rich Shores at Pulau Jong.
DOWNLOAD the Plan, SUPPORT the Plan! More on the
Singapore Blue Plan 2018 site.
Photos by others on this trip Joleen Chan
Loh Kok ShengOther shores surveyedVincent Choo
