Well before dawn, we survey one of our favourite shores, Pulau Sekudu or Frog Island that lies just off Chek Jawa on Pulau Ubin.
Today, I saw signs of dugong in this tiny island's lush seagrass meadows. Sponges, corals, sea fans seem to be doing well, and the Knobbly sea stars seem to be reproducing. We also saw a stonefish!
The seagrasses are growing lush and fresh on Pulau Sekudu. I looked and as usual, I only found a few furrows that looked like
dugong feeding trails.
Dugong feeding trails are formed when dugongs chomp up seagrasses including their roots, leaving a shallow meandering furrow of about equal width and depth. There are lush green clean (no epiphytes) growths of
Spoon seagrass (both small and large leaf blades). There were many patches of
Fern seagrass and
Needle seagrass.
Serrated ribbon seagrass seems to have spread to a larger area, now found in sparse patches from the mid-water mark to the low tide line. Compared to what I saw in
July 2019 and in
Jun 2018. I saw only one clump of
Tape seagrass. It had leaves that were only about 50cm long. The rest of the team saw several other clumps and they all had long leaves.
It was great to see many colourful patches of large, well grown sponges in a wide variety. Growing on the lower portions of the rocky areas (where they are only exposed at very low tides). It reminds me of Chek Jawa before the mass deaths in 2007 and Beting Bronok before it started to fade away.
This is similar to what we saw in
Dec 2021, which was an improvement over our surveys in 2020. I didn't come across any nudibranchs, but the rest of the team did.
It was good to see large
Knobbly sea stars on the arm of the lagoon. I saw about 3 large ones (30cm diameter), these are grizzled old grandmas. It was more exciting to see 2 smaller ones (about 20cm), suggesting that the population is reproducing well.
Finally, the team saw
Biscuit sea stars, which have been missing from Pulau Sekudu since
Jul 2020. Here's a photo of one shared by Dayna.
Like most of our northern shores, the stars of this shore are the echinoderms. The usual common 'northern' sea cucumbers were also seen:
Thorny sea cucumber,
Pink warty sea cucumber (though these two not as plentiful as seen on Changi). Among the sponges, many
Orange sea cucumbers,
Purple sea cucumbers, as well as
Big synaptid sea cucumbers and
Sponge synaptid sea cucumbers - looking like worms and snakes. I also saw a
Sea apple sea cucumber. There was a
Ghost brittle star that usually lives in Ball flowery soft coral. The long time resident
Diadema sea urchin is still there.
I saw three
Onyx cowries in this Purple branching sponge. Are they eating the sponge?
James spotted a
Stonefish! Can you see it? This fish is always a source of morbid fascination for me.
Today, I saw a variety of
sea fans. Most colonies were small, but looking healthy. Some had lots of
Tiny colourful brittle stars on them. The rest of the team also saw healthy sea fans of various kinds.
Other interesting sightings include two stranded
Huge jellyfish. There were many mama
Noble volutes laying egg capsules today. Worms can be odd on the shore. The star-shaped thing is a fan worm with its tentacles stuck together out of water. I also saw a
Lightning flatworm and a
Blue-lined flatworm.
The small
Boulder pore coral colonies on the arm of the lagoon are still there. They were all nice and brown (not bleaching) and well formed, only one had a whitish patch. I also saw one medium sized well formed
Flowery disk coral, the rest of the team saw other colonies of this coral too. Dayna saw the
Pock-marked coral colony and it was still alright.
Flaring at petrochemical plants at Pengerang Johor lit up the night sky during our predawn survey. It continued burning after sunrise. We saw the flaring too, during yesterday's survey of the Lost Coast.
Pulau Sekudu is off limits since 2007 and
requires special permission from NParks. Thanks to NParks for permission and support to do these predawn low spring tide surveys of the island.
What is the fate of Pulau Sekudu?Chek Jawa and Pulau Sekudu is slated for reclamation in the
Long-Term Plan Review. The plan includes 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 a large stretches of Changi Beach.
The Singapore Blue Plan 2018Among the Proposed Areas for Immediate Conservation Priority, the Singapore Blue Plan 2018 proposes that the intertidal and subtidal marine areas of Pulau Ubin to be designated Marine Reserve.
The proposed area would include Tanjung Chek Jawa, the largest known intertidal area in northern Singapore. Considered one of the richest in Singapore, Chek Jawa comprises many adjacent ecosystems: coastal hill forest, mangrove areas, rocky shores, seagrass meadows, coral communities, and sandy areas. Chek Jawa remains an icon of celebration and hope for many Singaporeans since its reprieve from reclamation in 2001.
DOWNLOAD the Plan, SUPPORT the Plan! More on the
Singapore Blue Plan 2018 site.
Photos by others on this tripLoh Kok ShengJonathan TanDayna CheahChe Cheng NeoJames KohJianlin LiuLiz LimOthers on this trip: Vincent Choo, Marcus Ng
