Semakau with TeamSeagrass

4am and we're out with the the fantastic TeamSeagrass folks for a pre-dawn trip to Pulau Semakau. This is a really special treat!
Those of us at the furthest site decided to wait for first light before laying out the tape. In the brief time, we explored the seagrass meadows and came across this very large sea anemone! It is probably Alicia sp., and Dr Daphne had earlier warned that these anemones sting powerfully. Indeed, it has all kinds of scary looking bumps on the body column. And the tentacles look like they mean business.

We had a very smooth monitoring session and finished at dawn! It was then time to explore the shores!Robin found this baby Knobbly sea star (Protoreaster nodosus)! They are not as common at Pulau Semakau as they are on Cyrene Reef. So it's nice to see one. The tide was really low and the visibility was fabulous! Here's the Team out at the reef edge.

At the reef edge were some animals that we rarely encounter higher up on the intertidal zone.
Like this enormous barrel sponge!

There were so many special hard corals encountered, that a separate post has been done about them.
Another special encounter was this Ocellated sea cucumber (Stichopus ocellatus) wedged among corals and under seaweeds.And this Curryfish sea cucumber (Stichopus herrmani). It has a very hard body texture with tiny little black tube feet on the flat underside.

In the deeper waters among the corals were amazing creatures!
A bunch of squid were hanging about in the water! They didn't swim away even as I approached closer.The group comprised several slim squids.With one broader squid. What's going on? Could the fatter one be a female and the others males who trying to be friendly with her? Hmmm. This is the first time I've seen so many of them together.
There was a beautiful batfish swimming elegantly among the corals. Besides this slow swimming fish, there were faster colourful fishes zooming about. I couldn't shoot them in time and haven't any ideas what they were. The rest of the team saw many seahorses, Chay Hoon spotted the Black-tipped reef shark again, and many small Blue-spotted fantail stingrays (Taeniura lymma) were encountered. Fortunately, no one got stung!There are many Bulb-tentacled sea anemones (Entacmea quadricolor) on Pulau Semakau. I know the Tomato anemonefish (Amphiprion fernatus) lives in these sea anemones. So kept a look out for them. It seems there's a tiny Tomato anemonefish in this one. But all I could see was tiny flashes of orange.But in deeper water, there was a larger sea anemone with a very handsome Tomato anemonefish in it!It was as curious about me as I was about it. And kept having a look at me!As we explored the shores, we noticed large fish traps on the shore. In the background are the industrial installations on Pulau Bukom.There was a boatload of many fishermen busy since dawn.And another boat with one fisherman a little further away.As we were leaving, another boatload of fisherman drove up and dropped anchor on the reef.During the landtour for TeamSeagrass, we had a brief glimpse of the fishfarm located at Pulau Semakau right next to our first and only coral nursery located on Semakau. In the background is the enormous oil rig parked there for maintenance.

Let's hope these do not permanently harm the rich and living reefs on Pulau Semakau.

More shared about this Semakau trip:

• Video clip of dogfaced water snake on the sgbeachbum blog
• Other sightings and more about the landfill too on the can you sea me blog

Amazing corals of Pulau Semakau

Today, we saw some rare and special corals during the super low tide at Pulau Semakau.There were some Acropora coral (Acropora sp.). This beautiful branching coral is not often encountered.This pretty Pebble coral (Astreopora sp.) is sometimes seen on some of our reefs. It is in the same family as Acropora corals.
Carnation corals (Pectinia sp.) have lovely fluted patterns and come in lovely pastel shades. It is not often seen, especially large colonies.Merulina sp. forms pretty plate-shaped colonies with ridges. They can come in a variety of colours. It is only sometimes seen on our reefs.
This beautiful powder blue plate coral with little bumps is probably Echinopora sp. I have only seen this in large numbers on Raffles Lighthouse.A truly delightful encounter was this colony of Moon coral (Diploastrea heliopora). I've only seen this coral twice before, on Sisters Island and on Pulau Jong.

Although the mushroom coral Heliofungia actiniformis is quite commonly seen on Pulau Semakau, I would say they are rather rare on our shores. The only other place they are commonly encountered is Pulau Hantu. They used to be seen in numbers on Beting Bronok as well, but are now no longer seen there.This mushroom coral is a single large polyp. It has very long tentacles with white tips and is sometimes mistaken for a sea anemone.When the tentacles are retracted, however, the hard skeleton is more obvious. The slit-like mouth lies in the centre of the disk-shaped skeleton.The skeleton made up of radiating walls with rounded 'teeth'.While the adults are free living and lie unattached to a hard surface, the young mushroom corals start life stuck onto a hard surface. Here's three tiny baby mushroom corals that were seen today.

Although Pulau Semakau lies right next to our only landfill, it is rich in corals and marine life. It is up to us to ensure it remains this way. By reducing our waste, the landfill will last longer and there will be no need to expand it to affect this wonderful shore.

Oil rig work site opposite Semakau's natural shores

OIL RIG “ESSAR WILDCAT” AT THE RAFFLES RESERVED ANCHORAGE
from PORT MARINE NOTICE NO. 129 of 2008 dated 2 Jul 2008

With effect from 6 Jul 08 to 21 Aug 08 at West Jurong Anchorage, 24 hours daily including Sundays and Public Holidays
Off-loading and loading of drilling equipment and maintenance works will be carried out onboard the rig. The work barges will be used for the transportation of the equipment to the shore facility.

Safety boats will be in attendance during the entire stay of the rig at the anchorage.

Further general enquiries relating to the project can be directed to Mr Jimmy Nicol, the project manager, at Tel No: 91188208.

wildfilms note: This area is just opposite the natural shores of Pulau Semakau where public intertidal walks are conducted and where the coral nursery is located. In addition, there was an earlier notice of construction of a fish farm in this area.
Links to more

• Singapore's first coral nursery Tania Tan, Straits Times 16 Apr 08

Update: here's a view of the oil rig taken on 7 Jul 08 during our trip to Pulau Hantu.

The oil rig taken from Pulau Hantu.
Taken on the way home with indications of the locations of Pulau Semakau, Raffles Lighthouse (RLH) and Pulau Senang. Raffles Lighthouse and the Live Firing Islands of Sudong, Pawai and Senang have some of the last untouched reefs in Singapore. While Pulau Semakau has good natural shores. Let's hope this massive activity does not impact these nearby reefs.
A closer look at the oil rig.
Here's a photo of the oil rig taken on Pulau Semakau on 3 Aug 08

The work period was extended to September in a follow up notice. More on the wild shores of singapore blog.

The sea bottom off Pulau Sudong is being measured

ENVIRONMENTAL SAMPLING AND ACOUSTIC EXPERIMENTS AT THE SELAT PAUH ANCHORAGE
from PORT MARINE NOTICE NO. 123 of 2008 dated 24 June 2008

26 Jun 2008 to 04 Jul 2008, 0800 to 1700 hours daily excluding Saturdays and Sundays at Selat Pauh Anchorage

There will be measurements of ocean water and sea-bottom properties by unmanned vehicles and surface craft. The unmanned craft will be operating in a 500m radius of the work boats. Acoustic communication tests will also be carried out in the working area. A safety boat will be in attendance during the entire period of experiment at the anchorage. Further enquiries relating to the project can be directed to Ms Regina Chan, the project coordinator, at Tel 9835 1615 or email: regina@smart.mit.edu

wildfilms note: this area is just off Pulau Hantu and the natural shores on Pulau Semakau.

This project continues in Sep 08. More on the wild shores of singapore blog.

Master Plan 2008: our Southern Islands

The cluster of Southern Islands near Sentosa seem very well in the focus of the planners. From the URA website, the map includes the major submerged reefs in the vicinity. But the map above is wrongly labelled. This is the correct names for the islands and reefs. (Higher resolutions of this same map on the website, however, had the correct names).The designated land uses are light green for "sports and recreation", olive green for "open space", purple for "hotel" or "business", light pink "residential" and dark pink "residential with commercial first storey", light blue "water body".

Most of the commercial and residential uses are concentrated on Seringat-Kias.This area was created by burying two submerged reefs: Seringat and Kias. This is what the two reefs looked like, from the Southern Islands Development Guide Plan (DGP) 1996 by the URA.The plans for Kusu Island are light green for "sports and recreation" with red areas marking "places of worship".
While the plans for the Sisters Islands are all light green for "sports and recreation".In the Parks and Waterbodies Plan, a chunk of St. John's Island is designated a Nature Area, while the Sisters Island and the water around them is designated a Marine Nature Area.
What does this mean?As for the other Southern Islands with natural shores, they are completely blank. Pulau Hantu isn't even labelled on the map, and Cyrene Reef doesn't appear on the map at all.
Here are the locations properly labelled.Pulau Semakau is the original island. The Semakau Landfill was created by building a seawall that eliminated Pulau Sakeng and the Eastern half of the original Pulau Semakau.

As for the landuse plan, the area is mostly maroon "business" and grey "transport facilities".
With olive green for "open space" assigned to the live firing islands and the natural part of Pulau Semakau.

Ominously, Pulau Hantu is beige, for "reserve site".

Significantly, Pulau Hantu was not featured in the exhibition in any other way. For example, no photos of people enjoying the island for fishing, diving or other water sports.

At the exhibition, under "Magnet for Business", the business plans for these islands are indicated.With dark blue for existing developments and maroon for projected developments. More about petrochemical industries and our southern islands.