The tide wasn't very low and the weather was wet, as we headed out to survey
Pulau Tekukor.
We saw two Giant clams, encountered a Yellow-lipped sea krait for the first time
in years as well as other interesting marine life. The seagrasses on the shore
facing Sisters' Islands are doing well, and I didn't see any mass coral
bleaching.
It was great to see the
huge
Fluted giant clam is still there. We saw it on
Nov 2017, but missed seeing it on
Sep 2018. This enormous clam is about 35cm long and it was not bleaching.
The rest of the team saw another Fluted giant clam! It is not that small (seems
to be about 20cm), so it must have been there all along, and we had missed
seeing it on previous surveys!
The team also spotted a small
Yellow-lipped sea krait! We no longer see this snake as regularly on our surveys as in the past. Our
last record sighting was by Chay Hoon at Kusu Island on
Apr 2017. Let's hope the sighting today is the start of a return of this beautiful
snake.
The snake has a highly toxic venom that can be fatal to humans. But it is a
gentle and docile snake with tiny fangs. It will not bite unless provoked. It is
best to leave it alone, although it is curious and may investigate you! How to
stay safe: Wear covered shoes and long pants to cover all skin exposed to water.
Don't harass, touch or pick up the snake.
Kok Sheng also shared a video of this creature. I don't know if it's a squid or
an octopus! (Update: Yujie says it is not a squid as it lacks fins. It is likely to be an octopus).
There remain a lot of
Frilly sea anemones on this shore! In some places, it is impossible to walk without stepping
on them. There were also many
Giant carpet anemones. I also saw one
Haddon's carpet anemone. Alas, I didn't see any animals living in them.
There are usually not a lot of hard or soft corals on the parts of the shore
that I surveyed. It is usually reefier in the southern end of Pulau Tekukor, I
didn't check that area out today.
But I saw a few large hard corals and they were not bleaching. There are lots of
zoanthids on this shore and I only saw one clump with pale portions. I only saw
a few very small colonies of leathery soft corals. They seemed alright.
There remains a lot of
Long black sea cucumbers
on the shore! Today, I noticed many that were shorter and more slender than
usual.
The western shore of Pulau Tekukor is part of the Sisters' Islands Marine Park.
And there are good growths of seagrasses on this shore, that faces the Sisters
Islands.
Sickle seagrass covers a large area of this shore, with fresh green leaf blades. There
were also sprinkles of
Spoon seagrass with small leaf blades. The seagrass situation is very similar to what I
saw in
Nov 2017. Which is a relief with the ongoing poor situation of seagrasses in recent
years at Pulau Semakau, Terumbu Semakau and even on Cyrene.
I saw one patch of
Tape seagrass with long leaf blades. And it was flowering! The male flowers (tiny white
things that look like styrofoam) are produced from a cup-shaped inflorescence
that forms at the base of the plant. The male flower has one end that is water
repellent, while the other end is attractive to water. So the flower will
'stand' upright on the water surface and even a wet finger-tip! The male flowers
tend to form 'rafts' with the tiny white male flowers facing the same way. I
last saw this patch in
Nov 2017.
Pulau Tekukor is very close to Sentosa Cove!
All kinds of vessels move in the narrow channel between Sentosa and Pulau
Tekukor. Including ferries, and working vessels like this barge loaded with what
seems to be some kind of industrial liquid.
As usual, there is a narrow line of plastic floating trash on the high
shore. It was disturbing to see small remnants of two red balloons on a string
washed ashore. We saw a dead sea turtle here in
Jun 2016 and bones of a dead sea turtle in
Aug 2017.
I didn't come across any fish traps on this survey. Let's hope this shore stays
safe until we can return.
Photos by others on this survey:
Loh Kok ShengVideos by
Loh Kok ShengMarcus NgJianlin LiuShawne GohOther shores surveyed by other peopleVincent Choo joined the NParks survey at Sentosa Tg. Rimau. Where he observed that the Tape seagrasses were also blooming.
Victor Toh
checked out Changi in the rain
