We land at first light on this submerged reef that lies near petrochemical plants on Pulau Bukom. Despite this, it is still very much alive! We survey the shore facing Pulau Sudong where
reclamation is scheduled for the end of this year.We encounter Giant clams, special anemones and other colourful reef life. I checked for mass coral bleaching. Although I saw widespread signs of stress, I estimate only about 2-5% of corals hard and soft were outright bleaching.
The rest of the team made all the special finds!
Burrowing and
Fluted giant clam, though we couldn't find the others that we saw on our last survey in
Feb 2023. Also special anemones like the
Pizza anemone,
Merten's anemone and
Leathery anemone. As well as 'Nemos', a small frogfish, and lots of nudibranchs and crabs.
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Photos by Richard Kuah and Che Cheng Neo
Links to their albums at end of post. |
My mission was to check for
mass coral bleaching which is expected to hit our shores soon. I looked out for corals that usually succumb early to bleaching. All the
Cauliflower corals that I saw were bleaching, some with recently dead portions.
Acropora corals were bleaching too.
Sandpaper coral, however, were not bleaching though some had recently dead portions. Some
disk corals were bleaching and dying, others were not. Most
anemone corals were alright, I only saw a few bleaching and dying. I saw two
Circular mushroom corals, one was pale. The
Blue corals I saw were rather oddly coloured, all blue or pale brown. Kelvin saw one that was dull white.
I saw two small patches of
Branching montipora corals that tend to form 'fields' on the intertidal of our submerged reefs. While some of the corals appeared more yellowish than usual, I didn't see any that were outright bleaching.
Among the most common large corals on this shore are
Boulder corals growing as flat rounded shapes. Most that I saw had pale or pinkish 'tops' (probably a sign of stress), some had dead top portions, a few were outright bleaching white.
Also commonly seen on our Southern shores are corals from
Family Merulinidae, usually forming boulder shaped colonies. Most of those I saw were alright, although some were rather pale and had recently dead patches. Only a few were outright bleaching.
I saw a wide variety of medium sized
leathery soft corals. Most were alright, although some had pale patches. A few were bleaching and some had large recently dead portions.
Jonathan and Tammy checked out a rich portion of the reef edge. It is packed with a variety of corals including a large colony of Anemone coral. Seems like most were alright, only some were bleaching. Seems that more of the submerged subtidal corals were bleaching than what I saw exposed on the reef flats above the midwater mark.
Here's a video of the reef edge that
Tammy shared.
Other cnidarians can also bleach, so I looked out for those too. There are a lot of
Broad Feathery soft corals in the lagoons in the middle of the reef flat. They were mostly dark brown though very few patches had yellowish polyps. I saw some
Asparagus flowery soft corals that were a little yellowish. I saw a few bleaching
Frilly anemones but most I saw were alright. All the
Giant carpet anemones I saw were okay. I saw one white
Sea mat colony, but other cnidarians seen like
corallimorphs seem alright.
During the survey, the team saw many special anemones that are not so commonly encountered. Besides the
Merten's carpet anemone, a
Leathery anemone, also a
Bubble tip anemone - all not bleaching. A second
Pizza anemone was also seen, it was bleaching - which usually makes these cryptic anemones more visible. Anemonefish were seen in
Giant carpet anemone which were abundant and none were bleaching.
I noticed many
Chocolate sponges with recently dead (bluish) portions on their top portions. Although there were many that were okay too. Most of the other sponges I saw were alright. I'm not sure if this is related to heat stress.
High res photos of all cnidarian sightings on
wildsingapore flickr.
There is not a lot of seagrass on this reef flat. But I did see sprinkles of various species, especially on sandy areas near the reef edge. Some of the small clumps of
Tape seagrass had long leaf blades!
Future of Terumbu RayaTerumbu Raya lies close to the
planned 31ha reclamation at Eastern tip of Pulau Sudong. Other shores near the impact zone include Terumbu Bemban and Beting Bemban Besar.
Large areas nearby are also slated for massive reclamation outlined recently in the
Long-Term Plan Review.
The Singapore Blue Plan 2018Pulau Semakau and nearby islands and submerged reefs have been recommended by the Singapore Blue Plan 2018 for Immediate Conservation Priority. The Blue Plan recommends the intertidal and subtidal marine areas of Pulau Semakau and adjacent Pulau Hantu, and Pulau Jong to be designated Marine Reserve.
The Blue Plan highlights that Pulau Semakau and its associated patch reefs comprise many ecosystems: coral reefs, mangrove areas, intertidal sandflats, seagrass meadows, and coral reefs. The subtidal area of Pulau Jong is larger than the terrestrial area. Pulau Hantu is a popular dive site has seen increasing interest in the past decade due to biodiversity awareness. If protection is accorded to these three islands, 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 surveyChe Cheng NeoRichard KuahKelvin YongTammy LimJianlin LiuJonathan TanTommy TanOthers on this survey: Tomy Arden
