First time on Sentosa Serapong west!

One of the best reefs nearer the mainland is found on the undisturbed shore off Serapong Golf Course at Sentosa. We surveyed a new stretch of this shore for the first time, thanks to Leanne and Desmond of SDC. These shores were impacted but clearly survived the 400tonne Pasir Panjang oil spill on 14 Jun 2024 and the 23 tonne diesel leak opposite Sentosa Serapong on 5 Feb 2025. 

Right next to the Sentosa bridge, there are lots of corals, large Long spined sea urchins, fishes, nudibranchs and other amazing marine life. As usual, the rest of the team make all the special finds. I will update once they share their photos.

It was amazing to see a long stretch of healthy Branching montipora forming a dense 'field' of about 50m at the mid-water mark. This is especially heartening as the Branching montipora on the eastern side of Serapong was mostly dead when we surveyed in Jul 2025.

There were also many well formed plate corals including a few very large colonies approaching 1m in diameter!

How delightful to see a large healthy colony of Branching anchor coral! As well as many small healthy Cauliflower corals. There was a small colony of table forming Elegant acropora coral with at least 4 little green gobies that live only in these corals and can survive out of water for the brief period of low tide. There were also some mushroom corals! And a few colonies of the usual commonly seen corals like Brain corals, Carnation corals, Anemone corals, Brain corals and Merulinid corals.

There were some small Leathery soft corals (too deep for me to take photos). Also a Leathery sea fan, some small clumps of Flowery soft corals and the usual Feathery soft corals.

There were a great many Diadema sea urchins, forming a long line along almost the entire stretch of the reef edge. Also the usual colourful reef sponges including large Barrel sponges in deeper water. The artificial seawalls were alive with the usual colourful crabs and small snails. There were also some small Giant top shell snails on the lower shores. The rest of the team make all the special finds. I'll update more later.

It was a great opportunity to survey this stretch of shore for the first time. Although it is not as rich as the eastern stretch of Serapong which we last surveyed in May 2025. Thank you SDC and Serapong Golf Course for supporting our annual surveys and for looking after these precious shores!

What is the fate of Serapong shores?

While there are so far, no known plans that will directly impact the Serapong shores, they are likely to be impacted by the reclamation at Keppel-Tanjong Pagar expected to start end of 2027.

As well as more long term plans such as the Greater Southern Waterfront coastal protection plan - a “continuous line of defence” at the South. Construction is slated to begin in the 2030s.

Others on this survey: Lester Tan, Samuel Lau, Rui Quan Oh, Dylan Seng