Small Sisters still doing well!

Just minutes from the Central Business District, are the living shores of Small Sisters Island.

This island is not open to the public. We surveyed with kind permission from NParks. The corals seems to be doing well and the team saw Cone snail, Anemonefishes and more!

We arrive long before sunrise. In the dark, the animals are more lively!

In pools left behind by the tide, there were lots damselfishes like the Bengal sergeants. The first Giant carpet anemone I inspected, had a large but shy anemonefish in it. Kelvin also saw another one. It was nice to see the usual animals found in reefs. Like large Barrel sponges and other sponges, and two Leathery sea fans, one had egg capsules laid in it, possibly by cuttlefish or squid. 

The rest of the team saw more exciting stuff: Kelvin found a Cone snail! The rest of the team saw special nudibranchs, sea star and flatworm. Also all kinds of fishes and large hermit crabs. It seems we saw TWO Merten's carpet anemones. Check out their albums for full photos.

Montage of photos by Kelvin Yong, Marcus Ng,
Che Cheng Neo and Tommy Arden.

There are and have never been a lot of hard corals on the intertidal of this shore. But today, the tide was quite low today, so I could see more of the reef edge. Here, there were some large and healthy coral colonies!

Besides the usual common boulder shaped and encrusting corals, today I saw several Acropora corals! As on our last survey here in Aug 22, there were still lots of Cauliflower corals near the jetty. I didn't see any mass coral bleaching.

I also saw several small to medium sized colonies of leathery soft corals. And a patch of several Spiky flowery soft corals. They were all healthy.

Today, I saw signs of a small boat strike. Many fresh white surfaces of rocks and dead corals broken up by the strike.

The two Sisters Islands are now designated as a Marine Park and managed by NParks. Both were closed enhancement works. There are plans for Big Sisters Island to reopen in 2024. Small Sisters Islands will not be open to the public. Our survey today was done with permission from NParks. More about the Sisters' Islands Marine Park on the blog and facebook page.

Photos by others on this survey

Kelvin Yong


Marcus Ng


Che Cheng Neo


Tommy Arden