Pasir Ris is a highly accessible shore and is well used by many people. But it
remains rich in a variety of marine life and is home to the last large specimen
of a rare mangrove tree on the mainland.
The rare tree is still standing and we encountered lots of sea stars. As well as
many other fascinating creatures.
Our
northern shores are usually rich in echinoderms. Today, many kinds of sea stars
dotted the shores! I was happy to see many
Biscuit sea stars both large and
small as we had not seen them recently on our surveys of the northern shores.
There were many
Cake sea stars, some bright orange, others more camouflaged. I
also saw one
Eight-armed sea star and the Sand stars came out after sunset:
Plain sand stars and
Painted sand stars.
There were also many kinds of sea cucumbers! A first sighting for this location
was a
Big synaptid sea cucumber. There were not as many
Pink warty sea cucumbers
as at Changi, and here they were tiny. I didn't see any
Thorny sea cucumbers.
There were several
Garlic bread sea cucumbers, many
Ball sea cucumbers. I
saw one
Orange sea cucumber and one
See-through sea cucumber.
The shore here is soft and silty, in some parts so soft you can easily sink up
to your knees! This is perfect for burrowing cnidarians like
cerianthids and sea pens.
Flowery sea pens were particularly abundant in some parts, many individuals found in a
small area. There were also many large
Swimming anemones, which don't burrow and can actually swim.
Prowling among the seaweeds in a pool of water is this tiny ferocious predator:
A
Pygmy squid. This squid doesn't get much bigger and I have seen it catch prey as big or
bigger than itself! Our first entry for this location on the wild fact
sheets!
Among the interesting finds was this male
Mangrove horseshoe crab. You can tell it's a male, because the claws on his first legs are modified
for clinging onto the female. And it's a Mangrove horseshoe crab because this
special claws have two 'fingers', while the Coastal horseshoe crab has one
'finger'. More on
how to tell apart these two kinds of horseshoe crabs.
The rest of the team ventured to the beacon on the shore and found it encrusted with sponges and other marine life.
They also saw a
nudibranch!
There is a small patch mangroves near the mouth of Sungei Loyang. This is home
to the beautiful
Bakau mata buaya, listed as 'Critically Endangered' not just in Singapore but
globally too! It is now the last large Bakau mata buaya on the mainland (the one at Sungei
Buloh is dead). The situation is similar to our last visit earlier this year
in
Jan 2020. The tree is still standing, even though another tree has fallen over
next to it (a
Nyireh bunga). The embankment behind the tree has also eroded away, but the base of the
tree looks strong and healthy. I couldn't see any flowers on the tree (but it is
very tall and getting dark). There were only a few calyx on the ground and a few
growing propagules that might have come from the tree. There wasn't much litter
accumulated near the tree.
This tiny patch of mangroves seems to be doing well. The mud is nice and soft
and smelly. There are lots of little saplings everywhere. The big trees are
doing well. There seems to be less trash than usual. Although the kayaks
'stored' there are still there. They appear abandoned.
Large areas of the shore are covered in a bloom of fresh green
Sea lettuce seaweed. This is normal and happens seasonally, usually towards the end of the
year.
There are still good growths of seagrasses on the shores here. Just Spoon
seagrass with both small and large leaves, growing particularly thickly on the
soft silty edges away from the shore. Unlike in
Jan 2020, today I didn't see large patches of bleaching seagrasses.
Those large vessels that we always see docked in this area, I found out belongs
to
Oil Spill Response, a
global NGO that is activated to clean up oil spills. This is one of their
regional bases, where they are on standby with equipment and supplies to deal
with oil spills. Here's
how they tackle oil spills, from a talk I attended in Mar 2014 ago by Oil Spill Response. Today, we saw
several stray dogs resting on the sand bar (photo below). The dogs barked but
left us alone as we didn't disturb them. We also saw a person throw plastic bags
of food for the dogs onto the shore and areas nearby. He said he goes back later
to collect the bags.
This shore is very well used. There were many people digging large holes on the
shore with a cangkul, probably looking for bait worms for fishing.
There were also several people slowly combing the shore while holding plastic
bags and containers of their finds. Some continued even after sunset.
Despite the heavy harvesting, I still saw many of the 'collectible' marine life.
Although I didn't see any adult
Gong gong snails, there were many juveniles with
thinner shells. There were also many
Window pane clams, some
Large cockles, and
many small
swimming crabs of various kinds.
Our shores are amazing and we should treasure them!
Photos by others on this trip
Loh Kok ShengOthers on this trip: Jonathan Tan
Other shore surveysMarcus Ng
surveyed Changi
Vincent Choo
surveyed Sembawang Beach
