We survey Lazarus Island and the artificial Seringat-Kias lagoon (also called Eagle Bay by boaters).
Seagrasses are still growing well at the artificial lagoon, and the natural coastal forest at Lazarus still okay. The shores seem quieter than in the past, but we didn't see any bleaching corals or mass deaths.
We start the survey on the rocky southern tip of Lazarus. As usual, there aren't many hard corals. Most were boulder shaped, I didn't see any that were bleaching. On the rocky shore facing Kusu Island, there are still lots of
Asparagus flowery soft corals. I saw the usual animals common on our reefy rocky shores: the
Ferocious reef crab,
Jorunna nudibranch. But I sense the shore was quieter than on our last survey in
Nov 2022.
Lazarus has among the last of our natural coastal forests growing on its natural cliffs. The forest looks okay, although there seems to have been a small landslide with bare slope and fallen trees at the base.
My main mission on this rocky shore was to check up on the Critically Endangered
Bonduc. It was badly chewed up with hardly any leaves on it in
Mar 2021, but had recovered in
Nov 2022. Today, it seems to have grown larger and was flowering and in good health. This is a very prickly bad-tempered plant! Its fierce hooks will catch onto clothing (or bare skin!) and are hard to dislodge. There are only a few plants known in the wild in Singapore. The one on Lazarus is a male plant, I have seen the
female plant on Pulau Semakau. Another special plant there is a
Brown-scurfy fig and it is still doing well, producing figs. I also saw some intriguing ferns.
I quickly headed to the artificial lagoon at Seringat-Kias to check on how the seagrasses are doing here. Towards the southern arm of the lagoon, there was still a large patch of
Smooth ribbon seagrass.
I could still see
Noodle seagrass with fresh and often long (30cm and longer) leaves growing all around the lagoon from the south to the north and all along the central part. The tide was not very low today so it was hard to see. Noodle seagrass is not often encountered on our shores. But compared to our survey in
Nov 2022,
Sickle seagrass had cropped leaves, there was less dense
Spoon seagrass (small leaves) and
Needle seagrass (narrow leaves).
As on our last survey in
Nov 2022, I saw about 20 clumps of
Tape seagrass growing all around the lagoon. The Tape seagrasses at Seringat-Kias are probably the healthiest that I've recently seen from all our other shores. They had nice healthy long leaves, I didn't see any that were cropped. And most had signs of recent blooming, both male and female flowers.
In the lagoon, thanks to James for spotting small sea stars, they seem to be
Knobbly sea stars. The
Snaky sea anemone is still there. Kelvin saw a
Common sea star!
The rest of the team had lots of special sightings of flatworms, nudibranchs, snails and more.
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Collage of photos by team members.
Links to their albums below. |
The southern shore of Lazarus that we surveyed today has seawalls. But this is minor compared to the massive reclamation that created Seringat-Kias, which buried the submerged reefs of Seringat and Kias and connected it to the natural Lazarus Island. A causeway bridge joins these with St. John's Island. Here's more about
what was done to create Seringat-Kias. Besides the lush seagrasses in the large artificial lagoon, mangroves and seagrasses have also settled in a smaller Mangrove Lagoon - I last surveyed this in
Nov 2020.
Lazarus Island in the Singapore Blue PlanThe 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.
James KohPhoebe ZhouLoh Kok ShengChe Cheng NeoTammy LimVincent ChooLam Jianjun
