St John's Island still alive

A short boat ride from the Central Business District on the main island of Singapore, are the amazing living shores of St John's Island.

Here, there are living rocky shores, reefs, seagrass meadows. As well as rare mangrove trees on the untouched western shore, which is part of the Sisters Islands Marine Park.

The island has been reclaimed to form several swimming lagoons: an easy ferry ride from the city. When we arrived for the evening low tide, there were lots of families heading back home after a great day out.

But the northern tip of the island remains untouched, with natural rocky shores cloaked in magnificent natural coastal forests. Habitats now rare in Singapore.

There are not a lot of hard corals on this shore. The tide wasn't very low and there was still a lot of Sargassum bloom making it difficult to check the lower shores. I saw one large coral with pale areas, but the rest of the team saw some healthy corals. Kelvin spotted a very large cuttlefish! The rocky area was alive with Jewelled chitons small and large and the usual crabs, snails. There many Giant carpet anemones, Frilly anemones and a Magnificent anemone.

Montage of photos by the rest of the team.
Links to their albums below.

Thanks to Jianlin who spotted a great many tiny nudibranchs, plus what looks like a Rockhopper blenny  While the rest of the team also spotted other nudis and slugs.

Montage of photos by Jianlin and the team.
Links to their albums below.

The western shore of St John's Island is part of the Sisters' Islands Marine Park, and overlooks the Sisters. I made the annual pilgrimage to pay my respects to the grandmother Nyireh laut tree and her daughters who grow here.

She is still very much alive with lush green leaves. Her two daughters nearby are also doing well. Plus, what looks like spindly new saplings near the old ladies! On our last survey in Apr 2021, there were two landslides at the cliffs that narrowly missed all three trees. I didn't see any new landslides today.

As the sun set, and just before the tide rushed back in, the team spotted special animals in the artificial lagoons. A Sundial snail, the Orange sand star (it has orange feet) and Vitate conch - we rarely encounter these. There were also the usual common animals like Fiddler crabs, Common sea stars and many Haddon's carpet anemones. The tide wasn't low enough to check up on the seagrass situation outside the seawall.

Montage of photos by the rest of the team.
Links to their albums below.

St John's Island in the Singapore Blue Plan

The Singapore Blue Plan 2018 highlights the importance of St John's Island to our marine biodiversity. The 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.



Photos by others on this survey

Kelvin Yong


Liz Lim


Richard Kuah


Jianlin Liu


James Koh


Vincent Choo


Loh Kok Sheng


Chay Hoon


Marcus Ng