Reefy seawalls at East Coast Park

We return to the very long seawall at East Coast Park which is encrusted with corals. Seagrasses have also settled in the lagoon behind the seawall.

Alas, we are unable to survey the larger area across the canal as "No Trespassing" signs have been set up there. But we saw living corals and seagrasses in the smaller area and even in the canal.

Pulau Jong is alive!

Pulau Jong is among the last untouched islands in Singapore. It has not been reclaimed or directly impacted by development. Pulau Jong is what all our Southern islands looked like before they were reclaimed.

Dubbed the 'char siew pau' island because of its cute dumpling shape, Pulau Jong has a huge reef flat that is exposed at low spring tide. This reef flat together with the domed island is said to resemble the silhouette of a Chinese sailing junk, thus 'Jong'. Our last survey was in Jun 2016 at the height of mass coral bleaching. It was relief today, to see no mass bleaching. Although there appears to be fewer hard corals on the intertidal now.

Living reefs at Terumbu Bemban

Terumbu Bemban has among the best reefs in Singapore!

Our last survey here was in Apr 2016, before the peak of mass coral bleaching. Today, I did not see mass coral bleaching, although I sense about 20% of the hard corals have died and some individual corals are pale or have bleaching patches.

Pulau Sekudu is alive!

We return for our annual predawn survey of Pulau Sekudu aka Frog island, just off Changi and Pulau Ubin. And enjoyed a spectacular sunrise!

I was glad to see recovery in sponge diversity, the seagrasses are doing well, and lots of interesting marine life. Our last survey was in Jul 2016 at the height of mass coral bleaching.

Beting Bronok slowly dying

This shore is close to last week's an oil spill off Pengerang. Six months ago, there was a 300-tonne oil spill in the East Johor Strait that impacted Pulau Ubin. During our last survey in Jun 2016, we saw coral bleaching.

Today, I'm relieved that I didn't see any coral bleaching. Although there were fewer hard corals, and I saw pale and 'melting' sponges as well as some pale flowery soft corals, we did see a wide variety of marine life. Nevertheless, Beting Bronok continues to decline and appears to be slowly dying.

Chek Jawa is still alive!

This is our first survey of the coral rubble area since Chek Jawa was hit by the 300-tonne oil spill in the East Johor Strait six months ago. And last week, there was an oil spill near Pulau Tekong. During last survey of this part of Chek Jawa in Jul 2016, we saw mass coral bleaching.

So I was very relieved to see lots of colourful sponges and marine life at Chek Jawa this morning! In fact, Chek Jawa is looking more like it used to before the devastating mass deaths in 2007 which wiped out the sponges and many other animals here.