The rocky areas of Changi were rather reefy this morning! With lots of animals that form colourful 'bouquets' on hard surfaces natural and artificial.
We also checked out a small seagrass area that we've not surveyed before and found lots of tiny little Biscuit sea stars. We have missed seeing them recently. Hope this means a return of these sea stars to Changi!
This is among the last super low minus zero tides for the year. Given the COVID restrictions, we have re-arranged our survey destinations and Chay Hoon and I visit this shore for the first time at very very low tides. We are amazed! Here's a glimpse at the sea fans, sponges and other colourful reefy marine life that have settled on the rocky shores of Changi. Both natural rocks and artificial jetty and hard surfaces.
Similar to our last survey here in May 2021, I saw many large healthy colonies of commonly seen sea fans like
Candelabra sea fans and
Skinny sea fans. Also sea fans less commonly seen on the mainland:
Asparagus sea fans,
Lyre sea fan,
Maze sea fan,
Sea whips. As well as some sea fans that I haven't seen before. As in May, I didn't see many healthy
Gnarled sea fans. While I saw many
Spindle cowries in May, today, I didn't see many.
Jetty legs and other hard surfaces were covered in colourful sponges, sea fans and other animals. Yes, these are all animals! I saw many patches of healthy Zebra coral. But only a few small Pink flowery soft corals.
Reefy animals were also plentiful today. There were many kinds of feather stars. Special snails like Onyx cowries, as well as the more common Noble volute. Sponges and other reefy animals are eaten by nudibranchs and we saw a variety, including many bright orange Bornella nudis. While ascidians are eaten by flatworms.
As we headed back, the tide was still low enough to see a narrow seagrass meadow that we have not surveyed before. It had lush growths of
Spoon seagrass (large leaves) as well as sprinkles of
Needle seagrass (with narrow leaves).
We had a quick look and found lots of tiny sea stars! Mostly
Biscuit sea stars (which we have missed seeing at Pulau Sekudu for a year and the rest of Changi survey today). But also some tiny
Cake sea stars and many small
8-armed Luidia sea stars. Seagrass meadows are indeed great nurseries! There were also the usual sea cucumbers that are common at Changi, as well as a
Glass anemone, and many small
Ball flowery soft corals, one of them with a large
Ghost brittle star, which is commonly seen in this soft coral.
See Changi shores for yourself!More details on
Changi - an easy intertidal adventure for the family.
What is the future of Changi shores?
Changi shores are precious because they
may be reclaimed in the
2013 landuse plan by the Ministry of National Development released in response to
2013 Population White Paper.
The blue outlined areas are "Possible Future Reclamation". The plans include a road link (black line) from the mainland jumping off at Punggol, crossing to Pulau Ubin through Chek Jawa to jump off to Pulau Tekong before circling back to the mainland on Changi East. Proposed reclamation (in yellow) will bury Pasir Ris shores, Pulau Sekudu and Chek Jawa as well as the Changi Beach shores from Carpark 6 to Carpark 7.
Other shores surveyed today
Richard Kuah checked out Changi
