One of the best reefs nearer the mainland is found on the undisturbed shore off Serapong Golf Course at Sentosa. Today, I had a chance to share these shores with friends from Sentosa Development Corporation.
I can't survey and guide at the same time. So I am grateful some volunteers could focus on surveying. Their photos are below. Thanks also to SDC for being such good sports during the walk, and for supporting our surveys through all the years!
My overall sense is that there is great improvement from my last visit in
Jul 2022, when I was also guiding and not surveying. The situation seems to have recovered to the time before the Big Dying that we observed in
Jun 2018.
It was a relief to know from the other surveyors that the large colony of
Acropora coral near the beacon is still doing well, and there might be another large colony in the area too. Here's Kelvin's vide of the large Acropora patch.
There were a lot more
leathery soft corals of various kinds, some were quite large. Similar to what I used to see before the Big Dying. We saw many medium-sized to large healthy
Barrel sponges - these suffered badly during the Big Dying. The situation is much better than what we saw in
Jul 2022.
In the area facing the spillway, there are now many clumps of
Branching montipora on the higher shore. The
Cauliflower corals have returned in numbers on the lower shore and are quite large today - they died out in 2018. We also came across many large healthy colonies of
Anemone coral and
Sandpaper coral. There were many of the common boulder corals and
Disk corals. As well as special corals like
Anchor coral,
Lettuce coral,
Galaxy coral,
Brain coral. Most of the colonies were well grown, and I didn't see any that were bleaching. Much better than what we saw in
Jul 2022.
The surveyors saw lots of exciting animals! Here's a selection from photos shared by
Richard Kuah. There were the usual common nudibranchs, but also enormous flatworms, and tiny ones too. Tammy found a
Clown anemonefish which usually lives in
Giant carpet anemones, also revisited the
Tomato anemonefish that lives only in a
Bubble-tip anemone. I also saw the
Magnificent anemones and a tiny
Haddon's carpet anemone. There there remained a lot of
Red feather stars and many large
Diadema sea urchins. At the old jetty, corals and other marine life have returned.
Kelvin's awesome video of the Tomato clown anemonefish.
I saw many clumps of
Tape seagrass with long leaves, only 1 had rather cropped leaves (but not cropped very short). I saw clumps for the first time in deeper water near the beacon. Two clumps near the seawall had young female flowers. I only saw 2 clumps on our last survey in
Jul 2022. There remains some
Sickle seagrass near the beacon, and sprinkles of
Spoon seagrass all along the shore.
One of the joys of a predawn survey is a glorious sunrise!
Thank you once again to SDC and Serapong Golf Course for supporting our annual surveys and for looking after these precious shores!
Photos by others on this surveyRichard KuahKelvin YongTammy Lim
