This rich shore lies just opposite the Central Business District and only takes a few minutes by fast boat to reach. Here, I often see the delicate corals that are less commonly seen elsewhere.
Today, I didn't see any mass coral bleaching, and most of the corals I saw were alright. But many Boulder pore corals seemed to be dying with rotting tissues that was probably the source of the faint smell of rotting fish at the reefs. It was nice to see a Fluted giant clam, long Tape seagrass, and other usual reef life.
This is our first survey of a southern island since
Crystle Wee reported bleaching corals while diving at Pulau Hantu on 4 Jun 2021. We couldn't do survey earlier due to recent COVID restrictions. Our last survey here was in
Jul 2020, when we did see some mass coral bleaching, part of the mass coral bleaching seen on many shores at that time.
Today, I saw some rare corals that I seldom see on our shores, such as delicate
Plate montipora corals,
Acropora corals, and
Hedgehog coral (which I usually only see at Raffles Lighthouse). The huge colony of
Boulder horn coral that I saw on our last survey in
Aug 2019 is still there. The colonies I saw were all healthy and did not have large dead or dying portions.
There were also many colonies of commonly seen corals, both boulder shaped and plate-forming. Most of those I saw were alright without large dead or dying portions. There were many healthy
Cauliflower corals and
Crinkled sandpaper corals - these commonly seen corals are often the first to bleach and die during mass coral bleaching.
Unfortunately, almost all the
Boulder pore corals, which is very commonly seen on our southern reefs, were not doing well.
I only saw a few Boulder pore corals that were a healthy all-brown. Most, even very large colonies exceeding 2m, were either very pale without any dead portions. Or were brown with dead portions (mostly the upper parts) that were covered in scum. And many had recently dying portions, with greyish-white thin layers of rotting tissues that flaked off and was probably the source of the faint smell of rotting fish at the reefs..
What I found particularly disconcerting was to see many colonies of
Blue corals with dead portions. I have never seen Blue coral bleach, and maybe, they don't turn pale when they are stressed. So I'm not sure what is happening. In this series of photos, the bottom right photo is of a Blue coral that is healthy. It is brown. Read
the fact sheet to find out why it's called Blue and how it's not even a hard coral.
Inside the lagoon, many corals had lower submerged portions were alright and with the top portions recently dead. Do these sightings mean that there was some level of bleaching recently? Which has since eased, although coral with dead or dying portion probably didn't fully recover?
The field of
Branching montipora corals inside the lagoon is still doing alright. Most of the colonies appear to be alive and well.
There were many large colonies of
leathery soft corals outside the seawall. Those I saw were all fine.
Today I saw the usual clusters of
Magnificent anemones, they were all fine. And I saw three different body column colours: white, red and purple. I saw a few
Giant carpet anemones that was pale. All the
Asparagus flowery soft corals I saw seemed alright.
I was glad to come across a small
Fluted giant clam (about 20cm). This is a known one that Richard has documented on our last survey in
Jul 2020. It seemed alive today, although it was retracted rather deeply inside its valves.
I'm not really good at spotting creatures, and usually only see the most common ones. Today, there were a lot of Red feather stars! And the usual colourful crabs and snails of our reefs. Check out the albums of the rest of the team below for more critters seen during this survey.
Inside the lagoon, the sprinkles of
Spoon seagrass (tiny leaves) seemed even sparser than usual. I didn't see any
Needle seagrass (narrow leaves) in the lagoon. At the jetty, there were two clumps of long
Tape seagrass. and one had female flowers. It was dark but I didn't see any
Ulva seaweed in the lagoon. I hope this means that the bloom that has been seen there for years is finally over?
I hope this amazing shore stays safe until we can survey again next year.
What is the future of Kusu Island?The cluster of Kusu, Lazarus and St. John's Islands has been recommended by the Singapore Blue Plan 2018 for elevated protection status.
The Blue Plan highlights that Lazarus, St. John’s, and Kusu Islands are established sites for coral nurseries as their shoreline offers ideal sheltered areas for growth of corals. Designating these islands as No-fishing Areas can bolster their rehabilitation. Protecting a larger cluster of islands means zonation plans for use can be implemented to manage tourism and human impacts.
DOWNLOAD the Plan, SUPPORT the Plan! More on the
Singapore Blue Plan 2018 site.
Photos by others on this survey
Jianlin LiuRichard KuahJames Koh and on
flickrVincent Choo
