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.

Death Note from Chek Jawa

I could smell it in the air…

After reading Adelle’s blog entry, I had already prepared myself for the worst. But stepping into Chek Jawa itself and seeing everything with my own eyes, I realised that no nature-lover would every be adequately prepare to witness this.

How many of you reading this have been to Chek Jawa? How many of you can remember the graceful carpet anemones dancing among the seagrasses? The cute little ball sea cucumbers that burrow into the sand? The common seastars that move around with their little tube feet? The colourful sponges that decorate the coral rubble? The salty smell of the sea as you stepped onto the sand bar?

But yesterday, I could only smell death.



The bits and pieces of white-coloured stuff you see above were not tissue paper left by some irresponsible visitors. Yes indeed, they were tissues, but animal tissues. I felt like I was stepping into a graveyard, except that the dead were not buried…

Chay Hoon said it reminded her of the tsunami, where hundreds and thousands of corpses were left to rot.

Indeed, death was in the air, in every breath we took. For the remaining photos below, you may click on each of them to see how the animals may have looked like when they were alive and healthy.



We used to have to dig out these burrowing ball sea cucumbers. But yesterday, they were every where, but lifeless. Frankly, I would rather that they were alive and burrowing. I wouldn’t mind taking time digging them out. Really, I wouldn’t mind…

There used to be thousands of carpet anemones among the seagrasses. Occasionally, you would see swimming crabs darting among the seagrasses, flashing their claws every now and then, and sometimes, a few unlucky ones got to close to the carpet anemones and became the latter’s meal.

Yesterday, I didn’t see any swimming crabs. I did see many carpet anemones, or rather, what’s left of the anemones. There were several lucky ones that looked like they were really unhealthy. The rest were dead, rotting, and torn into pieces, somewhat like the one below.



Previously, it was difficult to find even one sandfish sea cucumber as they burrow. But yesterday, we were spoilt for choice - except that they were all dead and colourless.



These sea cucumbers were supposed to be edible if properly prepared. During the Chinese New Year period, which is now, the prices can be obscenely high. I was never too fond of sea cucumbers. Or rather, I mean I love sea cucumbers when they are alive and in their natural habitat, but not as part of my diet, though I do understand there are others who love sea cucumbers in other ways. The decaying smell of the rotting sea cucumbers was still lingering in my nose as I was typing this. I don’t think I’ll be having any sea cucumber this Chinese New Year.

Has anybody seen SpongeBob SquarePants? This could probably be how he would look like when he is dead.



And SpongeBob’s friend, Patrick, the seastar did not fare any better.



That was a dead knobbly seastar.

The coral rubble area used to be full of colourful sponges, and every now and then, you will be able to find a few red, orange or beige knobbly seastars. But yesterday, everything was black.

When I touched one of the dead sponges with my metal chopsticks, it disintegrated into black powder. It was like watching some horror movie, where the victims or monsters were reduced to dust.

By the way, have you eaten abalone before? In the market, they sometimes sell a cheaper alternative – volutes.



The above is a noble volute served in its shell, soup included. I saw another dead noble volute with a clam stuck to its foot. From what we understand, noble volutes feed on clams. It was depressing to see so many dead volutes, but at least I think this one didn’t die with an empty stomach. Or perhaps both the volute and the clam died before the former finished its meal? I guess that would remain a mystery that we can never solve.

Looking at all these carcasses every where, saying that I'm depressed is certainly an understatement. Those who have visited Chek Jawa, especially the guides, will probably understand how I feel now. If you have not visited Chek Jawa before, please visit Ria's Online Guide to Chek Jawa.

What causes this massive killing? It is the rain?

We do know that most marine creatures can’t survive in fresh water, and the drastic rainfall over the past few weeks had certainly flooded Chek Jawa with lots of freshwater. And the Johor River was made an unwilling accomplice by bringing more flood waters into the Johor Straits.

But like what they asked in the movie “One Last Dance”, who is the real murderer? The one who fired the shots, or the one who wrote down the names?

Or perhaps the rain is the bullet, but there must be someone who pulled the trigger.

And I think we all know who is, or rather, who are behind all these crazy weather patterns.

What comes around, goes around.

Perhaps it is really time to think about how we have been mistreating mother earth, and how we can salvage the situation, before it’s really pay back time…

Happy New Year from Sisters Islands

The wildfilms crew and intrepid beachfleas celebrate the new year with a trip to Big Sisters Island. Both Big and Little Sisters Islands have some of the best reefs that an ordinary person can visit at low tide.

Treading carefully to avoid damaging corals, and also Mr Stonefish, we check out the reefs...

Hard corals are animals! In fact, a colony of countless tiny animals called polyps. The polyps produce a hard skeleton. Hard corals grow slowly as these tiny animals multiply and add tiny skeletons to the colony. Here's a look some forms of our hard corals...

Clockwise from left: This lovely pastel Pavona coral has a typical arrangement of delicate stripey lines with short tentacles. A baby blue Hydnophora coral has little cones surrounded by their short tentacles. The yellow Pocillopora coral seems furry with its little blue flower-shaped polyps over a yellow base; while this bright green Galaxea has polyps that make star-shaped skeletons.


Big Sisters is a great place to see Mushroom corals (Family Fungidae). Unlike most other hard corals, a Mushroom coral is typically one giant polyp! They start out as tiny disks attached to a hard surface (like the row of cute tiny mushroom corals on the left photo), but as they grow bigger, they become 'free-living'. These guys can move around! Siti was telling me that an experiment showed mushroom corals can really kick ass and bully other hard corals that are literally stuck to a rock.


Enormous Mertens' carpet anemones (Stichodactyla mertensii) are common on Sisters Island. Ron saw a few with 'Nemos' (False clown anemonefishes), but I couldn't find any.


Among the feathery soft corals, a hairy crab is almost overlooked. The lagoons and reefs of Big Sisters are just crawling with life!


Siti and I remember our TeamSeagrass responsibilities and dutifully check out the island for seagrasses. There was a patch of Tape seagrass (Enhalus acoroides) and it was blooming! And it JUST blossomed. The three frilly white petals only last one day. What a treat! There was also teeny tiny Spoon seagrass (Halophila ovalis) which intrigued Siti very much.


Ron found a beautiful Spider conch (Lambi lambis)! It was very shy and peeped nervously out of its pretty pink shell.


The conches (Family Strombidae) have big eyes on long stalks that can peep out of the shell. The Black-lipped conch (Strombus urceus) is another conch. These snails are listed among the threatened animals of Singapore due to habitat loss and overcollection.

A sea snake and other marvels were encountered by the duck and leafmonkey.

Ron also found a flathead (a fish) and saw a stingray!

Joseph Lai, meanwhile did a survey of the coastal plants and discovered rare trees and plants! "Sisters' Island's impressive tree-population has no comparison in Singapore, except perhaps, Pulau Jong" Joseph says of his findings, which are posted on his eart-h.com website.


Alvin and Chay Hoon are hard at work...here stalking the Acropora goby that live in branching Acropora coral. This is the first time we are using Princess Ursula (as we respectfully address the tempramental underwater housing), since she got a hole drilled into her for some additional controls. She swam through with flying colours and didn't spring a leak. In fact, Alvin feels the hole in her head seemed to have improved her temper.


As the sun sets and the tide turns, we raise a toast to this beautiful little island. With heartfelt wishes that it will remain unspoilt. And always be there for all Singaporeans to appreciate and enjoy.

More about Sisters Islands and our unique City Reefs