'Reefy' Changi after the oil spill

A tiny team survey this 'reefy' part of Changi. During our our last survey in Jul 2024, we saw mass coral bleaching. And about 3 weeks ago, Changi and other shores in the East Johor Straits were impacted by an oil leak from Langsat, Johor.

It was a relief to see the 'garden' of sea fans are still present here, although it is no longer as lush as before. Corals, anemones and other cnidarians seemed alright. And the team spot a variety of interesting marine life!

There were still many large healthy colonies of commonly seen sea fans like Candelabra sea fans and Skinny sea fans, mostly in deeper water. Alas, most of those on the higher shore were dead, and seemed to be recently dead.  Unlike our last survey in Jul 2024, I didn't see any Gnarled sea fans, nor any of the less commonly seen varieties. 

As usual, the rest of the team make all the special finds. Kelvin saw a juvenile Painted sweetlips and a Copperband butterflyfish. There were also many tiny Milk-spotted pufferfishes, and a big 'ball' of tiny Eeltail catfishes. As well as halfbeaks, filefishes and gobies. Echinoderms seen included some Crown sea stars, some Black sea urchins, Sponge synaptid sea cucumbers, brittle stars. A reef octopus was seen, as well as cephalopod eggs. But the most abundant special find were Ovulid snails which live on and eat sea fans! At the start of our survey, we also saw tracks of what looks like wild boar.

Collage of photos by the team.
Links to their albums at the end of the post.

During our last survey in Jul 2024, corals at Changi were impacted by mass coral bleaching. At that time, I saw lots of Zebra corals which were alright. Today, they continue to dominate the rocky areas and were also fine. Last year, Neat hexa coral were bleaching outright, today, I saw a few and they were alright.. I saw a small Flowery disk coral which was pale but seemed alright. Rachael saw another small one that seemed okay too.

I saw many Haddon's carpet anemones, all along the shore. All seemed alright. There were a few small clumps of Candy hydroids, several large 'bushes' of Stinging hydroids. I didn't see any Pink flowery soft coral. The rest of the team saw Cerianthids and sea pens.

There seemed to be less sponges and reduced variety. There were some small clumps of ball-shaped sponges and some larger clumps of Purple branching sponge. Melted chocolate sponge still dominated - most seemed nice and shiny, but a few were dull and seemed 'patchy'.

The mangrove trees that have settled on the seawall there are growing well and are now quite tall.  I first noticed the huge Johor fig in the lagoon has fallen over in May 2021. It appears to be due to some sort of slope failure. At that time, the tree was not completely dead. There were still leafy branches on it and it was still figging. In Jul 2024, it was completely dead. Today, even the trunk is much reduced. But fortunately, the small Johor fig treelet growing on a big rock nearby is still alright! A little challenging to take photos in the dark, tides ended before sunrise.

At the western most lagoon, it was rather quiet. There remained patches of Spoon seagrass with large leaf blades. But very little sea fans. The area under the jetty was almost clear of encrustations, similar to the situation in Jul 2024. Button zoanthids used to form large 'fields' at the western most part of this shore. In Jul 2024, I saw small patches, and today, there were none at all.

I looked for and didn't see signs of oil on the rocks or shore. There was only a faint line on the blue barrels at the Changi Beach Club lagoon.

Segments of the boardwalk over the water are often completely taken over by fishermen who lay fishing rods, traps and lines in dense numbers. This also happens on other boardwalks. Here's some letters from the public about the conflict between fishermen and others on the boardwalks at Berlayar Creek, Changi and Punggol. Read more about how coastal boardwalks can do more harm than good.

Yellow arrows point to lines in the water attached to traps.
These lines are placed on both sides of the boardwalk.

What is the fate of these shores?

There doesn't seem to be a change in 2013 plans to reclaim all of Pasir Ris, all of Changi from Carpark 1 to Carpark 7 and beyond, and reclaim Chek Jawa and Pulau Sekudu. These appear to remain in place in the Long-Term Plan Review. Including plans for a road link that starts at Pasir Ris, crosses to Pulau Ubin, right across Chek Jawa to Pulau Tekong, and back to the mainland at Changi East.

See Changi shores for yourself !

They are easy to get to, and enjoyed by many people. It remains rich in marine life. More details in "Changi - an easy intertidal adventure for the family". This reefy part of Changi needs a very low spring tide of zero to minus zero.

Photos by others on this survey

Kelvin Yong 


Rachael Goh