First and last survey of Terumbu Palat

A small team survey a trio of tiny submerged reefs that are likely to be buried in the upcoming Pulau Sudong reclamation.

The team encounter corals and a variety of marine life, including the endangered Merten's carpet anemone. Here's a compilation of their photos, links to their albums at the end of this post.

There were Giant carpet anemones with clown anemonefishes! Also many kinds of flatworms and nudibranchs. As well as Spider conch and large sea urchins. There was a small pool at low tide, where many animals could shelter.

A special find is what looks like a Merten's carpet anemone, which we seldom encounter on our shores. It is listed as Endangered in the latest edition of the Singapore Red Data Book of threatened biodiversity.

There was a good variety of hard corals, including many large boulder shaped corals, some branching corals and plate-forming corals. As well as mushroom corals. It seems most were not bleaching.

There were the usual variety of Leathery soft corals, some colonies were large. Only a few were bleaching.

The reclamation is slated to begin end of this year. So on one of the last of the super low tides for this year, the team split up into two. The more intrepid members making this first and last survey of Terumbu Palat. While I continued with our scheduled survey of Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal for oil spill and mass coral bleaching impact. There are too many impacts on our shores and too few low tides to keep an eye on all of them! Thanks to Kelvin for leading the team and Alex for keeping us all safe.

Photos by those on the survey

Richard Kuah


Che Cheng Neo


Kelvin Yong Part 1


Part 2


Rachael Goh