An introduction to Singapore's marine life!

Recently, I participated in an intertidal reef walk on Pulau Hantu. This was the first time I had a good look at Singapore's reefs, and I was pleasantly surprised!

There was plenty of marine life to see as we picked our way carefully between the rocks and corals on the reef. Hard corals, soft coral, sea stars, sea cucumbers, different types of seagrass, eels, octopuses... just to name a few.

The lagoon at P. Hantu

Filefish

Unfortunately, our reefs have been very much affected by development along the coastline, including land reclamation. Since the 1980s, live coral coverage has been reduced by about 65%...

An industrial site in the background... 

A walking feather star!

Can you spot the octopus? We saw 2 that day! 

Coastal works have also caused the visibility in surrounding waters to be reduced from about 10m in the 1960s to the present 2-3m.

Amazingly though, Singapore's remaining reefs have about half the coral species as the Great Barrier Reef, even though our reefs are so much smaller in size!

Lots of seagrass... apparently there are dugongs around. I would love to see one!

Hairy crab

Cabbage coral

It was a great morning on the reef and I met some like-minded people with an interest in conservation. And now that I've seen the reef from above the water surface, I can't wait to get in and see it from below!

A feeding sea cucumber

The bright colours of a carpet anemone in contrast with the green-brown background

Jorunna funebris, a common nudibranch in these reefs

This intertidal reef walk was organised by National Parks Board, as part of Singapore's Comprehensive Marine Biodiversity Survey. A huge thanks to the guides who were with us!

For more information on Singapore's reefs, visit:
http://www.pulauhantu.sg/ and http://www.wildsingapore.com/




PS: I'm no coral expert (yet!) so although I've tried to identify the coral, I may have got some wrong.. Please feel free to correct me!




References: Ria Tan, http://www.wildsingapore.com/