Terumbu Raya in the face of Sudong reclamation

We return to Terumbu Raya East for the first time in 4 years! Although it lies just off the petrochemical plants on Pulau Bukom it is still very much alive. With sprinkles of corals and seagrasses.

The rest of the team saw sharks, sea turtles, special anemones and other marine life.

As usual, the rest of the team make all the special finds. Large colourful reef fish, groups of many squids at the reef edge, even octopus despite the daylight. There were colourful echinoderms like feather stars, large Diadema sea urchins and special brittle stars. We regularly only see a few nudibranchs in the south (a much wider variety in the north), the team saw all the common ones. Unfortunately, seem that only one small Noble volute was seen. Ian captured a lot of sharks hanging around the reef edge from his drone.

Tammy captured this rare glimpse of a sea turtle. The rest of the team also heard sea turtles during the survey. We often do encounter sea turtles on our surveys, but they are too fast to capture. We first hear the explosive sound as the animal emerges at the surface to exhale. And generally only get a few seconds glimpse of it before it inhales and dives down again.

The rest of the team also came across what seems to be two Leathery sea anemones which are quite rarely encountered. They also saw a bubble tip anemone, some Magnificent anemones (not yet forming fields it seems). Almost every member saw 'Nemos' in the Giant carpet anemones - I totally failed to see any.

The Giant clam team was with us and they found 11! The team took photos of some of the clams, including one dead clam. This is unfortunately common: we regularly find our favourite large clams dead.

There have never been a lot of corals on this shore. Some scattered medium sized boulder-shaped coral colonies. Most seemed alright.

Similar to what I saw in May 2022, the reef edge facing Pulau Semakau no longer had a lot of live corals as in the past. But there were still scattered colonies mostly boulder shaped with some less commonly seen kinds like Anchor coral, Lettuce coral, Brain coral. There were more live corals turning the corner to the shore facing Beting Bemban Besar, with even a Tongue mushroom coral.

The team also saw special corals that I missed, plus a patch of many circular mushroom corals. They also took great photos of the reef edge which is rich with corals.

There are not a lot of leathery soft corals on this shore, mostly medium to small colonies of various kinds. I saw several Giant carpet anemone (no 'Nemos') and one Fire anemone. Also one Asparagus flowery soft coral. None of them were bleaching. The Giant clam team was with us and found a lot! I happened to be nearby when they found this large one.

The seagrass situation is probably similar to what we saw in May 2022 and Aug 2021. Most of the centre of the flats are still bare sand. There were denser patches seagrasses toward the seaward edges, mostly heavily covered in epiphytes. All the Tape seagrasses I saw were cropped short.

Zen came across two abandoned net. They look quite recent (not much algae growing on them), one had a fish trapped in it. Fortunately they were not super long. It has been quite some time since we came across abandoned nets here.

The Sudong reclamation worksite looks similar to what we saw in May 2026 from Beting Bemban Besar. Tall piles of sand with lots of large heavy equipment on the sand and in the water.

The reclamation site is not yet showing up on Google Earth but an aviation news site Alert 5 has shared an image dated 13 Jun 2026 from the Copernicus system.

From Port Marine Notice No. 55 of 2026 "Reclamation at Pulau Sudong" with effect from 08 Apr 2026 to 07 Oct 2026. The works involve the installation of navigational buoys, removal of metallic debris, demolition of abandoned jetty, dredging works, installation of marine staging platforms for soil instrumentation, infilling works, marine vibrocompaction, stone revetment works, and jetty construction to facilitate the reclamation and jetty construction works at Pulau Sudong.

Here is the location of Terumbu Raya and other nearby shores in relation to the Sudong reclamation.

What is the fate of Beting Bemban Besar?

Large areas nearby are also slated for massive reclamation outlined recently in the Long-Term Plan Review.

The Singapore Blue Plan 2018

Pulau Semakau and nearby islands and submerged reefs have been recommended by the Singapore Blue Plan 2018 for Immediate Conservation Priority. The Blue Plan recommends the intertidal and subtidal marine areas of Pulau Semakau and adjacent Pulau Hantu, and Pulau Jong to be designated Marine Reserve.

Blue Plan highlights that Pulau Semakau and its associated patch reefs comprise many ecosystems: coral reefs, mangrove areas, intertidal sandflats, seagrass meadows, and coral reefs. The subtidal area of Pulau Jong is larger than the terrestrial area. Pulau Hantu is a popular dive site has seen increasing interest in the past decade due to biodiversity awareness. If protection is accorded to these three islands, zonation plans for use can be implemented to manage tourism and human impacts.

DOWNLOAD the Plan, SUPPORT the Plan! More on the Singapore Blue Plan 2018 site.

Photos by others on this survey

Tammy Lim



Lon Voon Ong


Adriane Lee


Richard Kuah



Zen Xuan He


Rui Quan Oh


Dylan Sng


Tommy Tan


Others on this survey: Lester Tan, Ian Mun