Although Cyrene lies in the middle of
an industrial triangle, it still has some of Singapore's most amazing shores.
A full team surveys and find dugong feeding trails and giant sea stars! Corals seem to be well and new baby Giant clams are seen.
The star of Cyrene are
Knobbly sea stars! I checked out the area directly facing Pasir Panjang Container Terminal and saw 12 there. The rest of the team saw about 30 near the beacon similar to what I saw there in
Nov 2024, which is about twice the number I saw in the past.
As usual, the rest of the team make all the special finds. Kelvin found a tiny Burrowing Giant clam, while Richard found a tiny Fluted Giant clam! The big Giant clam was also seen. As well as Cushion stars, the strange hybrid Pentaceraster-Knobbly sea star is still there. I'll update with more as the rest of the team upload their photos.
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Photos by the rest of the team.
Links to their albums at the end of this post.
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Today I saw many
dugong feeding trails from our landing point north westward along the shore facing Pasir Panjang Container Terminal towards Jurong. These trails are formed when dugongs chomp up seagrasses including their roots, leaving a shallow meandering furrow of about equal width and depth. It seems every survey since 2021, we see dugong feeding trails on Cyrene. Yay!
Thanks to Kelvin for the drone view for the amazing extent of dugong feeding trails on this vast shore! Here's a snapshot. Check out
this full clip and
this full clip - fascinating!
There's never been a lot of hard corals on Cyrene since we first started surveying it. Most of them are boulder shaped and there are some large colonies. I had a brief look at the corals on the eastern end today. In
Jun 2024, we estimate about 50% of the hard corals here were impacted by
mass coral bleaching mostly the smaller hard coral colonies were outright bright white bleaching. While larger ones seemed alright. Similar to our last survey in
Nov 2024, today I didn't see any bleaching. All those I saw were nice and brown, except for one that was rather pale.
Near the beacon and around the eastern tip of Cyrene, there are a lot of large
Leathery soft corals. In
Jun 2024, an estimated 70% of colonies were outright bleaching or showing signs of stress (pale patches), and 'melting' into smaller fragments. Similar to our last survey in
Nov 2024, today I didn't see any leathery soft corals bleaching. All the Sea mat zoanthids and anemones that I came across were also fine.
The middle of the reef flat is now almost completely bare of sand. In the past, there were a lot more seagrasses here. Along the edges, there is now a very long and narrow sand bar all along the western and extending to the southern edge of the shore facing Pulau Bukom. In the past, there was only one obvious sand bar at the western end. Kelvin's awesome drone views show the extent of this long and narrow sand bar
approaching from the east, and
approaching from the west. Not sure what is happening, and whether the loss of seagrasses has anything to do with it.
But the sandy shores are still very much alive! Today, the sand bar was a stage for a large flock of lively Terns constantly twittering and interacting in flight. Possibly displays as part of mating? Thanks to
Jonathan Tan for documenting the Tern Party with great close ups! Some bird were bearing gifts of fish to try to get on the good side of their Intended. How wonderful that this riotous event happens in the middle of one of the world's busiest port!
Kok Sheng found 8 of the huge Keyhole sand dollars we only regularly see on Cyrene. As well as the Orange sand star. There were also the usual sand dwellers like Olive snails, Egg-white moon snails. The patches of Halimeda seaweeds are still there.
Mathias Luk made a really special observation of a
Grey bonnet snail laying eggs! Our first encounter of this behaviour!
Dense seagrass cover is now only mostly found on the reef edges, better on the eastern end and patchier elsewhere. Many areas had dense ephiphytes - blackish hairy maybe cyanobacteria. There are still a few fresh green patches. Tape seagrass remains cropped, those with longish leaves were badly beat up.
Thanks once again to Kelvin for the drone view of the deep pool in the middle of shore which used to be thick with long Tape seagrass and surrounded by dense meadows of seagrasses. These disappeared about 15 years ago. Today, I waded into the pool now shallower and surrounded by bare sand. Inside the pool, there is thin cover of a variety of short seagrasses with fluffy epiphytes. No long Tape seagrasses. This is similar to what I saw every year, on our surveys since
Sep 2022.
The team came across a fish trap (bubu) with some small fishes in it. I also saw a pile of fish trap components dumped on the shore.
Although it lies in the middle of
an industrial triangle and major shipping lanes, Cyrene has some of Singapore's most amazing shores. We had surveyed in
Jun 2024 for impact of the Pasir Panjang oil spill a few weeks prior and did not see any signs of oil. Today, Cyrene to have pulled through both this oil spill and mass coral bleaching that happened last year. Let's hope it stays safe until we return!
Kelvin's awesome drone view shows Cyrene next to the petrochemical plants on Pulau Bukom.
Photos by others on the surveyKelvin Yong
drone viewsKelvin Yong's
survey photosLoh Kok ShengRichard KuahTammy LimJonathan TanTommy TanAdriane LeeMathias LukOthers on this survey: Lon Ong
