Northern Shores: health check
Yesterday, wildfilms and Siti dropped by Changi to see if the mass deaths on Chek Jawa was also happening there.
Our favourite patch of seagrasses on Changi was ominously quiet. To our relief, we didn't come across heaps of dead sea cucumbers and sea anemones like we did on Chek Jawa.
But we didn't see any live sea cucumbers though. And saw only one small, yellowish sickly carpet sea anemone in the murky water.
There seemed to be an unusually large amount of mangrove debris floating in with the waves: mangrove seedlings, leaves and twigs. Washed down from upriver?
We also saw five clumps of large, juicy water hyacinths. These are freshwater plants and they look recently washed into the sea. On the high shore, I could gather a good assortment of mangrove seeds and seedlings just by looking in a small area.
TeamSeagrass member Andy Dinesh shared this about the bulbous water hyacinths "I saw quite a few (about 10 separate clumps) floating by whilst on the ferry to Belungkor on Saturday 20th Jan morning. They seemed to be coming from up the Johor River. Probably flushed out by the receding floodwaters?"
There were some dead fishes, but not more than usual. They look freshly dead.
But the peacock anemones and sea pens seemed alright. We saw the number that we usually do at this tide height and time of the day.
What joy when we spotted several sand stars (Astropecten sp.) busily roaming over the sand! And the usual groups of tiny hermit crabs annoying one another.
The seagrasses were lush and fine. Some patches of Fern seagrass (Halophila spinulosa) and lots of Spoon seagrass (Halophila ovalis).
Pasir Ris
Today, Debby Ng of the Hantu Bloggers also shared this info:
"Incidentally, I was at Pasir Ris on Friday with the kids and did a salinity test. The mud was unusually barren, mostly crabs and snails. Anemones had died and no sea cucumbers or sea hares as there usually are. The salt test read 22ppt as compared to the usually 30-35ppt."
We really hope the effects of the deadly deluge will pass quickly and our beautiful Northern shores will get well soon.
Our favourite patch of seagrasses on Changi was ominously quiet. To our relief, we didn't come across heaps of dead sea cucumbers and sea anemones like we did on Chek Jawa.
But we didn't see any live sea cucumbers though. And saw only one small, yellowish sickly carpet sea anemone in the murky water.
There seemed to be an unusually large amount of mangrove debris floating in with the waves: mangrove seedlings, leaves and twigs. Washed down from upriver?
We also saw five clumps of large, juicy water hyacinths. These are freshwater plants and they look recently washed into the sea. On the high shore, I could gather a good assortment of mangrove seeds and seedlings just by looking in a small area.
TeamSeagrass member Andy Dinesh shared this about the bulbous water hyacinths "I saw quite a few (about 10 separate clumps) floating by whilst on the ferry to Belungkor on Saturday 20th Jan morning. They seemed to be coming from up the Johor River. Probably flushed out by the receding floodwaters?"
There were some dead fishes, but not more than usual. They look freshly dead.
But the peacock anemones and sea pens seemed alright. We saw the number that we usually do at this tide height and time of the day.
What joy when we spotted several sand stars (Astropecten sp.) busily roaming over the sand! And the usual groups of tiny hermit crabs annoying one another.
The seagrasses were lush and fine. Some patches of Fern seagrass (Halophila spinulosa) and lots of Spoon seagrass (Halophila ovalis).
Pasir Ris
Today, Debby Ng of the Hantu Bloggers also shared this info:
"Incidentally, I was at Pasir Ris on Friday with the kids and did a salinity test. The mud was unusually barren, mostly crabs and snails. Anemones had died and no sea cucumbers or sea hares as there usually are. The salt test read 22ppt as compared to the usually 30-35ppt."
We really hope the effects of the deadly deluge will pass quickly and our beautiful Northern shores will get well soon.
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