Some parts of the silty soft shore were covered thickly in seagrasses; mainly Spoon seagrasses (Halophila ovalis) and Needle seagrasses (Halodule sp.).
The seagrasses were teeming with tiny snails, which also dotted the soft silty sand so that it was impossible to walk without stepping on them.
A closer look reveals that they are the delightful Dubious nerites (Clithon oualaniensis)! These are among my favourite snails and I so rarely get to see them.
Here's a look at the underside (photo on the left) and a tiny bit of the body (photo on the right). The body is striped too, just like the other bigger Nerites (Family Neritidae).
I find these snails fascinating because they come in an astonishing variety of patterns.
The designs look like they've been patiently drawn with a tiny black marker!
Some of the designs are really intricate.
And colourful too! The variety seems endless.
There were many Tiger moon snails (Natica tigrina) with their spotted shells. Many were in huddles: mating or fighting over food?
There was also one Lined moon snail (Natica lineata). I seldom see this moon snail (although we just saw one yesterday at Changi).
Indeed, it's been a moon snail fiesta recently and I saw this other moon snail that I've not seen before. It wouldn't come out of its shell so I couldn't see its body. I have no idea what it is!
Another mystery snail was this beautiful snail that was ploughing through the soft sand. I saw several of them today! I've seen them in the past at Chek Jawa, but not in recent times. I also have no idea of its identity, but it sure is pretty. 
Another delightful surprise was this snail. From Tan, K. S. & L. M. Chou, 2000. A Guide to the Common Seashells of Singapore, it's possibly a Bufonaria sp. (Family Bursidae). I've so seldom seen one alive that I've not even done a page for this snail on Wildfacts. From Tan and Chou, "this undetermined species is rare intertidally and usually only seen in dredge samples taken offshore. Very little is known about them." WOW!
And among the seagrasses was this Onyx cowrie (Cypraea onyx) which is listed among our threatened animals. Other snails that were abundant on the shores were the Banded creeper snails. There were lots of shells of the Gong gong (Strombus canarium) and of the Black lipped conch (Stombus urceus), inhabited by hermit crabs, but I couldn't find any live ones.
It looks like mobile phlegm. I have no idea what it is. On firmer sand were lots of tubeworms.
There were several of the large Plain sea anemones (photo on the right). I seldom see more than one of these Plain sea anemones on a trip.
There were several Haddon's carpet anemones (Stichodactyla haddoni) and those that were submerged had tiny anemone shrimps living on them. I saw one peacock anemone with its tentacles tucked into its tube, and only one Peachia sea anemone (Peachia sp.).
There was also one Whiting (Family Sillaginidae), and Andy saw a flatfish. Strangely, I didn't see any little gobies.
But I didn't see any other kinds of shrimps. There were a few small swimming crabs, though; and one large Stone crab (Myomenippe hardwickii) in a stone.
On the high shore, I chanced upon this gaggle of Land hermit crabs (Coenobita cavipes). They were literally queueing to try out a new empty shell! Well, the queue quickly collapsed into an all out tussle.
Here's a closer look at them. There were also lots of Striped hermit crabs (Clibanarius sp.) and lots of tiny little hermit crabs too.
But there were lots of sea cucumbers. Only one of the Warty sea cucumber (Cercodemas anceps) (photo on the left), but many Thorny sea cucumbers (Colochirus quadrangularis) (photo on the right). I also saw buried Ball sea cucumbers (Phyllophorus sp.) but no Garlic bread sea cucumbers (Holothuria scabra).
And I saw this strange sea cucumber. Perhaps it's the Orange sea cucumber? I have no idea.
Some were a pale pink, and all had a large and prominent petalloid in the centre. This rather pentagonal sand dollar is thick at the edges and at the centre, and thinner elsewhere.
In this one, the structures on the undersides were clearer. The spines are longer at the edges.
Here's a photo of another of these rarely seen sand dollars. The only time I saw them was on the Sentosa shore that has since been reclaimed for the IR. So it was a real treat to see them today!
Just a couple of years ago, my duck could dirty the waters of Labrador Park with his unwashed feet and still catch sight of an unruly horde of curious creatures in the tiny stretch of shore below the fishing jetty. Since then, the construction of a major new port terminal, the laying down of massive submarine cables, land reclamation, nearshore dredging and dumping have conspired to colour the waters a pretty and permanent shade of parchment brown. Helping to muddy the picture were well-meaning and ill-thought experiments that inspired scepticism and left positive signs of disarray on the intertidal zone. Instead of new recruits to revive the worn and littered strand line, the tides bring wave after wave of reminders that the world is just not big enough to house a few free hectares of soft and quiet sand.
At Labrador Park, nature dwells in a vacuum of momentous activity created by minds that see a clear-cut line between human pursuits and the world at large. In this vision of progress unshrugged, the reefs of Singapore's sole southern rocky shore labour in vain to reclaim even a fraction of their former glory. Besieged and begrudged, this island's unpaved outposts enjoy the protection of powers too mighty to feel the pain of their loss and too meek to consider the true costs of a future where the wildest thing left in the world is that untameable beast known as human nature.
I read with interest the big splash in the newspapers about Project Semakau, which was linked on the Wild Singapore site.
Semakau has had an interesting history - from fishing village, to refuge for Indonesian fishermen (back in the day when entering another nation’s territorial waters wasn’t that big a deal), and now, a “land anchor” for the Semakau Landfill.
I hope that the Semakau Project will not ignore the previous biodiversity work that had been done at Semakau, which includes:
- its reefs, past and present;
- the controversial New Scientist paper, and my comments on it, and my eternal hope that the reporters will write clearly about Semakau and distinguish between the Landfill and the natural island;
- some photos that I took at Semakau (but no where near as prolific as Ria’s).
- Team Seagrass’s work on the seagrass meadows at Semakau
I also hope that the Semakau Project takes note of the various groups and individuals (many of them on my blogroll) that have already put in time and effort on spreading the conservation message about our shores.
Here’s wishing them all the best in their efforts!
So we did. Cyrene is a reef in the middle of our port and it is really unique. I don't really understand fully the ecology of the reef yet, but I fully agree with Ria's observation: We have such an interesting justaposition of pristine nature in the middle of a sh*t hole.
Swimming crabs seldom fail to make their presence felt. A sudden splash followed by a dark body that dashes towards a coral outcrop or bloom of weed usually signals the flight of a frightened portunid. If the crab finds itself in a soft spot, it might decide to dig its way out of sight. Cornered individuals might make a bold stand, claws agape and ready to deliver a testy pinch to fishy mouths and ducky pokes. Thalamita species in particular are wont to fight rather than flee, while Charybdis and Portunus swimmers seem more inclined to paddle or shovel their way to safety. In their haste, accidents can happen. One frantic fella darted away from my duck only to crash into the embrace of a carpet anemone. The cnidarian reacted near-instantly, folding its oral disc of stinging tentacles over the crab, which decided with just enough speed that it'd rather lose a limb than its life. With luck, the crab will survive and regain all its appendages with its next moult, but for now, it must get by with one less arm.
Soldier crabs and tiny fiddlers burrow in the sand bar, where they await rare hours of exposure that permit foraging and fornicating. The hairy crabs that prowl the rubble care less, as their scruffy shells hide a decidedly toxic disposition. A new find this trip was a reef crab with spoon-tipped claws and the personality of a grouch. For some reason, my duck never learns and the crab responded to attempts to manouevre it into more intimate positions by poking back with enough bite that my duck's next crabby encounter, with a busy Parthenopid, was strictly at arm's length.
Just after it got dim enough for my duck remember that he's afraid of the dark, the path back to the boat was blocked by a freshly-moulted flower crab that sat on the sand as he pondered his next move. Actually, I doubt he could even muster the strength to pinch my duck as he seemed too tired from shimmying out of his old skin to even poke back. But once he's hardened up, the fella probably had a wild weekend in his new garb as he scoured the reef for still-softshelled maidens who'd signal their passion by pissing off a dose of pheromones into the water. Even with crabs, it's chemistry that matters.
We took a closer look yesterday.
Just off the jetty on Labrador shore, there are massive structures and and long line of floating barges and assorted heavy industry vessels.
A closer look at the humungous 'M' shaped structure.
And next to it, lots of heavy earth-moving vehicles and gigantic piles of sand.
Here's an even closer look with humans for scale.
Beyond this massive worksite, a long line of vessels.
There is a very short line of floats (orange line). 
On one side of the orange floats, large floating industrial installations.
Something with two pairs of tall towers and a crane.
And something which looks very heavy duty. I have no idea what these are.
Further behind the thing with the two pairs of towers, were more heavy duty equipment.
And more large cranes.
On the other side of the orange floats, and facing Labrador shore, there's a huge dredger.
It was busy at work filling up a barge.
With one full barge being taken away by a boat.
Some seem to be floating platforms with smaller cranes.
There were at least four of these floating platforms.
Strung out in a line.
There is certainly a lot impacting on Labrador's natural shores.
Thus it was especially heart breaking to see that a large concrete slab STILL remains on Labrador nearly a year after the issue was first raised and the project team told to remove the slabs.
Special effort is being made to encourage the public to avoid disturbing the 'coral restoration works' along the main aisle. Yet, the concrete slab remains along this main aisle.
Here's a view of Sentosa's natural shore from the Labrador Promenade. We decided to head out to Sentosa to check out the shore there.
Meanwhile, a last sad look at the beleaguered Labrador shore.
Labrador Nature Reserve is just opposite Sentosa's natural shores, marked by the green Tanjung Rimau beacon.Here's a view of Sentosa's natural shore from the Labrador Promenade.
The seawall appears built.
And it seems to extend only to a portion of the Sentosa shore.
This reclamation affected shores there, which were teeming with hard corals and other marine life.
These very large hard corals were right under the cable car tower. More about the reclamation on the Sentosa shore on the wildsingapore website.
Now it seems the remaining shores that were not affected by the new seawall will be impacted by the staging area to be set up on the shores over the next seven months.
From the Sentosa shore, we could see the works going on near Labrador.
How is the Sentosa shore doing with all these impacts?
This is what I call the Omelette leathery coral. This was the most commonly seen on Sentosa on our trip.
Small leathery corals often look like disk-shaped mushrooms.
This is what I call the Black-and-white leathery coral because it is black when the polyps are expanded, and white when the polyps are retracted.
This is what I call the Smooth leathery coral. I'm still awaiting help to get these animals identified.
This leathery coral with tiny fingers I couldn't place even in my rudimentary grouping, because I couldn't see its polyps.
Hidden among the leathery soft corals were tiny filefishes (Family Monacanthidae). These fishes can change their colours and often match the colour of their sheltering soft coral.
They also bend their bodies to match blend into the soft coral! Which makes it very difficult to take a good photo of the entire fish.
Here's one that happened to poke its head out. The filefish has a movable 'spine' on its head.
Most of the hard corals were Porites hard coral (Porites sp.) with tiny polyps and corallites. Most are brown, but this green one might be a porites too.
Although it looks similar to Porites, this is a Sandpaper hard coral (Psammocora sp.) with tiny TINY polyps forming flower-like corallites.
Another Sandpaper hard coral, but this colony has a crinkled colony surface.
This one is a Goniopora hard coral (Goniopora sp.) with tiny polyps. It used to be more commonly seen on this shore.
Forming disks or ruffled plates, this is a Disk hard coral (Turbinaria sp.).
There were also several colonies of colourful Favid hard corals (Family Faviidae), some forming boulders.
Others are more encrusting.
And a large sausage-shaped Favid hard coral that was glowing in the dark! Marcus also saw one long mushroom coral (Family Fungiidae).
And a well camouflaged False scorpionfish (Centrogynes vaigiensis).
This fish actually belongs to the family of groupers and is not toxic.
One sure sign that it's not a scorpionfish is the nose flaps! More about how to tell apart fishes that look like stones on the wildsingapore website.
These tiny TINY sap-sucking slugs which are probably some sort of Elysia.
They were everywhere. Chay Hoon used to say this all the time, and I still couldn't find them. Yesterday, I did! Ivan found yet more weird slugs too.
Also everywhere, these tiny little bug-like animals that were on the Tape seagrasses. Marcus thinks they are probably amphipods, a group of crustaceans that include the beachfleas.
Sentosa seems to be hanging in there despite the pressures. We can only hope for the best.Tip: Managing Your Reading ListBefore you get started, we want to let you know about an important feature of Google Reader. As you view items in your reading list, they will be automatically marked as read as you scroll down (when in the "Expanded" view). If you'd prefer to disable this feature, you can turn it off in Settings. Dismiss this message (it will not appear again) |
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