Our annual survey to this reefy northern flat is bitter-sweet. Like visiting our favourite grandma and watching her painfully, slowly fade away. I feel privileged to have seen her at her best.
Despite the ongoing reclamation works on Pulau Tekong nearby, and flaring at Penggerang Johor, it remains alive. Seagrasses remain abundant as much of the shore has become very soft and silty. The patch rich with delicate colourful animals is still there, but there seems to be a lot recent sponge death. Also, practically 100% of all hard corals here were bleaching. But the team saw lots of nudibranchs and other marine life. Thanks to NParks for facilitating the survey!
There is small reefy patch on Beting Bronok that I call the 'sponge garden'.
On the seaward side of this patch, there is still a wide variety of sponges that look healthy. But I didn't see any sea fans today.
However, most of the sponges on the higher shore seem to be dying. This seems to be a recent event, with decaying tissue (brown/grey) on otherwise brightly coloured animal. There was also a faint smell of death in the area. Seems like whatever is happening is affecting most of the different kinds of sponges.
Nevertheless, there remain lots of healthy sponges on the tiny patch in the middle of the lagoon, I sense more than in the past. But not a wide variety of them.
Yellow bumpy sponges were still the most abundant kind, here and throughout Beting Bronok.
As usual, the team make all the special finds. There were still some nudibranchs, though not as wide a variety as in the past. Huge
Spangled flatworms were unusually abundant. Kelvin saw a large sole, an Estuarine moray eel and some other large fishes. We saw no sea stars and few sea cucumbers. It does appear that for today, the diversity is much reduced.
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Collage of photos by the team.
Links to their albums below. |
Our shores are currently also being impacted by
mass coral bleaching and it was not surprising to see that Beting Bronok was not spared. One thing 'good' about coral bleaching is that all the corals become very visible. In the past, I would only see about 20 corals. Today I saw about 40!
Almost all the corals here are
Boulder pore corals. Practically 100% were bleaching. I saw only 2 non-white corals. About 20% of the bleaching corals had large dead portions.
Other cnidarians can also bleach, so I looked out for those too. The most abundant cnidarian remains
Button zoanthids which still cover large areas of the flat, very densely in some parts. None of them were bleaching. I saw a few small
Spiky flowery soft corals, all were bleaching. I didn't see any bleaching anemones, but the team saw one bleaching
Snaky anemone. They also saw
cerianthids and
sea pens of all kinds, none were bleaching. The
stinging hydroids were lush and spiky.
Seagrasses continue to grow on large areas of the southern tip of Beting Bronok. Today, I noticed more of them in the lagoon in the middle of the reef flat. All
Spoon seagrasses (with most large leaf blades but also some small) grow lush and fresh and green (no epiphytes). I have seen this since
Jun 2018.
Over the years, the reefy patch on Beting Bronok seems to wax and wane. Beting Bronok remains a pale shadow of itself. This is what the shore looked like in years past...
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| A bit more marine life in 2017. |
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| Mostly zoanthids only on the shore, Aug 2015 |
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| Marine life on at Beting Bronok in 2014 |
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| Marine life on Beting Bronok in 2013. |
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| Colourful marine life at Beting Bronok in 2012. |
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| Beting Bronok in 2012. |
Here's what Beting Bronok looked like twenty years ago in 2003.
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| Beting Bronok in 2003. |
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| Beting Bronok in 2003. |
There used to be a wondrous variety of
sea fans.
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| Sea fans on Beting Bronok in 2004. |
Here's more
old photos of marine life at Beting Bronok. Lost forever probably are the wonderful
Sunflower mushroom corals and other corals that we used to see here.
Where is Beting Bronok? What is its status and future?When the
2030 landuse plan by the Ministry of National Development was announced, it was also announced that Beting Bronok and Pulau Unum have been
granted 'Nature Area' status. As I understand it, this status means the area "will be kept for as long as possible until required for development". Here's
an earlier about 'Nature Area' status seem to mean.
To me, Beting Bronok seems to be in steady decline since the reclamation started at nearby Pulau Tekong. It has since also been affected by the flooding that led to
mass deaths at Chek Jawa in 2007, and the
coral bleaching in 2010 and a
ferry ran aground on Beting Bronok in Jul 2011.
Development of
Pengerang Johor for a petrochemical complex that was rejected in Taiwan for environmental and health reasons can also impact Beting Bronok. Today, we started our survey before dawn. And throughout, there was massive flaring at petrochemical plants at Penggerang, Johor. This has been going on for years now.
The flaring is so intense, it looks like a 'false dawn'. Real dawn on the left.
Now, with massive reclamation at Tekong, we can only hope for the best for this wonderful reef on our Northern shore.
Photos by others on this surveyTommy TanChay HoonKelvin YongTommy ArdenNg LeekiangMuhd NasryVincent ChooOthers on this survey: Ian Mun.
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