Mega sightings (Aug 2020)

The most mega of sightings this month is of a juvenile whale shark!

On 13 Aug, Mothership reported: A wild three-metre juvenile whale shark was recently spotted in Singapore waters. This sighting was confirmed by Dr Zeehan Jaafar, a researcher in Singapore who studies aquatic vertebrates, including fish, in the Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore. Dr Zeehan will publish more details on this sighting on the Singapore Biodiversity Records.

There were also lots of sea turtle sightings, and signs of dugong.

Update on 3 Sep: Dr Zeehan shares "*TWO* whale shark sightings in Singapore reported in Singapore Biodiversity Records! Report can be downloaded here:
https://lkcnhm.nus.edu.sg/app/uploads/2020/01/sbr2020_129-131.pdf

The first photo is by Juepeng Lin of a subadult off St. John's Island from 2015. The second photo is by Soon Lea Lim of a subadult off Bukom Island taken last month. The latter photo started discussions around sightings of this species within Singapore's territorial waters. Heartfelt gratitude to these awesome citizen scientists for sharing their observations with us!"



Sea turtles

Kayakers rescue a sick sea turtle on 2 Aug which was handed over to NParks. More in this Mothership article.

Photo by Kayakasia

Minister Ong shared about 41 hawksbill turtles hatching at Pulau Satumu, Raffles Lighthouse on 6 Aug.

MORE sea turtles hatched on 7 and 8 Aug at East Coast Park, shared NParks. 

On 28 Aug, Minister Desmond Lee shared about MORE sea turtle hatchlings.

See also this article on Channel NewAsia "More turtle sightings and nests over the last few years: NParks" on 29 Aug 2020.

Dugongs on our shores!

During our annual survey of Chek Jawa's southern shore on 21 Aug, I came across one dugong feeding trail near House No. 1. Kok Sheng shared this photo of a dugong feeding trail too.