Next to Pulau Ubin jetty there are living rocks and seagrass meadows. We started at Thomson's Rock and was rather disappointed that it was rather bare of sponges, and the sea fans around it were mostly half dead. This is similar to our last survey here in
Jul 2024.
Could the huge fish farm located just off the shore have something to do with this? The
oil leak from Langsat, Johor about 2 months ago probably didn't help - Changi and other shores in the East Johor Straits were impacted. Fortunately, sea fans and sponges were doing much better closer to the jetty. And we didn't see any coral bleaching.
This rock is made famous by John Turnbull Thomson's 1850 painting: "Grooved stones on Pulo Ubin near Singapore."
Today, there were not a lot of sponges at the Thomson's Rock. But there were more and a wider variety near the jetty. There were many large clumps of well formed
Purple branching sponges, and a few of other kinds of common sponges. Still, probably not as many compared to what I saw in
Jun 2021. Today, there were also a lot of
Blob ascidians in all kinds of colours.
The sea fan garden near the jetty was still doing well. Today is the first time we surveyed here at minus zero tide! With many large colonies of
Flat branch sea fans and many white Sea whips, some growing straight up even at low tide out of the water. There were also less common encountered kinds like a
Lyre sea fan and
Asparagus sea fan. In fact the more commonly encountered kinds seemed to be missing. Most were well covered with
Tiny colourful brittle stars, and I only saw the
Spindle cowries when I got home and looked more closely at my photos. Near the Big Rock and even among the live ones near the jetty, there were many dead sea fans.
Among the sponges and on the rocky areas, I saw a large Cake sea star. Also a large Sponge nudibranch that is usually well camouflaged but this one as upside down showing its purple foot. There were also flatworms feeding on the ascidians, some Onyx cowries, many Stone crabs including one mama carrying bright orange eggs. Today, we saw an unusually large number of
Sponge synaptid sea cucumbers, which was also observed in
Jul 2024 and
Jun 2021.
We last visited this shore during
mass coral bleaching in
Jul 2024. At that time, we saw some bleaching. Today, all seemed well. There were many
Zebra corals, which can be quite common on our Northern rocky shores, they seemed alright. I saw one
Flowery disk coral which looked okay.
Haddon's carpet anemones remained the most abundant cnidarian visible here. I saw one small colony of
Pink flowery soft corals. There were many large fluffy clumps of
Candy hydroids and the more ominous
Stinging hydroids. As well as many clumps of
Button zoanthids and some corallimorphs. All seemed well.
Today I saw good cover of
Spoon seagrass (with large leaves) all along the shoreline from the Big Rock to Ubin Jetty. The leaves were nice and green, most were free of epiphytes. The ground is very soft in some parts. The tide turned before sunrise so I couldn't see if the seagrasses were as lush as they were in
Jun 2021. I saw the usual variety of sea pens and cerianthids. While there were many Ball sea cucumbers, I only saw one Pink warty sea cucumber. It was nice to see a Big-head seagrass octopus - haven't seen one for a while. I put it back into a pool of water.
What is the fate of Pulau Ubin?This shore, together with Chek Jawa and Pulau Sekudu is slated for reclamation in the
Long-Term Plan Review. The plan includes a road link (black line) from the mainland jumping off at Punggol, crossing to Pulau Ubin through Chek Jawa to jump off to Pulau Tekong before circling back to the mainland on Changi East. Proposed reclamation (in yellow) will bury Pasir Ris shores, Pulau Sekudu and Chek Jawa as well as a large stretches of Changi Beach.
The Singapore Blue Plan 2018
Among the Proposed Areas for Immediate Conservation Priority, the Singapore Blue Plan 2018 proposes that the intertidal and subtidal marine areas of Pulau Ubin to be designated Marine Reserve.
The proposed area would include Tanjung Chek Jawa, the largest known intertidal area in northern Singapore. Considered one of the richest in Singapore, Chek Jawa comprises many adjacent ecosystems: coastal hill forest, mangrove areas, rocky shores, seagrass meadows, coral communities, and sandy areas. Chek Jawa remains an icon of celebration and hope for many Singaporeans since its reprieve from reclamation in 2001.
DOWNLOAD the Plan, SUPPORT the Plan! More on the
Singapore Blue Plan 2018 site.
Photos by others on the surveyRichard KuahVincent ChooOthers on the survey: Che Cheng Neo, James Cabatbat, Adriane Lee
