Coral bleaching at Semakau East

On 23 Jul 2016, we visited Semakau East to check out the coral bleaching situation.

It seems that the reef is doing badly. We estimate about 70% of the hard corals and 40% of the leathery soft corals are bleaching. We estimate 5-10% of the corals have died recently.

Coral Bleaching in Terumbu Semakau

Our final survey for this season of low spring tide would be to check out the coral bleaching at Terumbu Semakau, a patch reef off Semakau Landfill.

How are the corals doing? Unfortunately, they are not doing well.

Baby Knobblies at Pulau Sekudu

With permissions from National Parks Board, we are back at Pulau Sekudu to do our annual survey. Otherwise, this island is actually out of bounds.

We had the best sunrise out of the 3 days we were out thus far! I must say this shot is definitely postcard-worthy. Thank God once again for great weather. :)

My favourites on East Coast's reclaimed shores

Despite most people's perception that there's not much marine life in Singapore, we do have lots of shores to explore during low tide. And I'm back here checking out two stretches of East Coast after two years since 2014. How are they doing?

Once again, we ended our survey of 2 shores with a beautiful glow from sunrise. Prior to this, we spent some time checking two different stretches.

Predawn at Chek Jawa coral rubble

I'm back at Chek Jawa, one of the two seashores that started my passion in marine life (the other is Tanjong Rimau, Sentosa). It's like visiting your friend that has been there all along through different seasons. That applies to both the shore and myself. We were able to visit this shore with permission from Nparks.

The team soaked in the magnificent presence of the glows from the sunrise after we ended the trip. Yes, we arrived at Ubin before 3am to do a predawn survey and ended at dawn. 

Back at Pulau Tekukor with turtle find

After 6 years, I finally set foot at Pulau Tekukor again! My last survey here was in 2010.
 

The natural rocky coastline is a prominent feature of this untouched island that sits right across Sentosa and St John's Island.