It has become our tradition to survey Big Sister's Island during the Lunar New Year. Part of Singapore's first Marine Park, we did our survey with permission from NParks.
We saw otters, sharks, Giant clam! The corals seemed alright. Big Sisters Island was
just recently reopened to the public so we had a closer look at all the new facilities.
Most of the shores on both Big and Small Sisters' Islands were reclaimed: seawalls were built on the reef edge and the reef flat buried. The original islands were much tinier. Most of Big Sister's Island is ringed by artificial seawalls, which create two swimming lagoons. Since the reclamation, living corals have returned in the big lagoon of Big Sisters Island. The latest Google Earth images show the newly constructed boardwalk!
Kelvin flew the drone providing spectacular views. Here is Big Sisters Island with Small Sisters Island on the left, and on further back, Pulau Tekukor and St John's Islands - the western shores of these islands are part of the Sisters' Islands Marine Park. Only 15mins away by fast boat from Central Business District district on the main island!
As usual, the team make all the special finds! A small shark in the Big Lagoon, and many cruising around the outer shore. Colourful slugs including some special ones, among the boom in Elysia sap-sucking slugs. Many kinds of crabs, plus a glimpse of a Lobster. Common sea stars and large black sea urchins too. The
Giant clam (40cm long) in the big lagoon is still there. It seems okay. There were also many Spider conch snails.
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Collage of photos by the team.
Links to their albums below. |
Just before sunset, a pair of otters came by, caught a fish and ate it at the top of the seawall. After sunset, I heard a pair of Spotted Wood owls in a duet.
In the Big Lagoon, I saw the usual variety of hard corals. Mostly boulder shaped ones, but also many plate corals and some less common kinds. Including Mushroom corals. There were also many small colonies on the artificial seawall. Most of those I saw were alright. Kok Sheng also saw some special corals like Acropora.
I also saw a good variety of
leathery soft corals with some medium-sized healthy colonies.
Giant carpet anemones remain abundant - but I didn't see any with 'Nemo'. As well as Frilly anemones. I also saw many Corallimorphs and only one Asparagus flowery soft coral. They all seemed fine. This situation is similar to our last survey here in
Feb 2024, which was before the
global mass coral bleaching event. So hopefully, this means most of the corals on the shore made it through?
More on the
NParks website about what you can see and do at our Sisters Islands Marine Park.
Photos by others on the surveyKelvin YongKelvin's
drone viewsJianlin LiuMathias LukLoh Kok ShengRichard KuahOthers on this survey: Vincent Choo, Isaac Ong, Tommy Tan, Ian Mun
