I'm back at Terumbu Raya, a submerged reef off northern part of Pulau Semakau after 3 years! My previous trip was in Jul 2011. Terumbu Raya, also named as The Great Reef in Malay is home to thick growths of hard corals and its associates by the reef edge.
Following my last blog post on Southern Semakau entitled "Sunny Sunday out at Southern Semakau", I will continue to use the 4 "S"s for the title for this blog post- Simple Serenity at Southern Semakau. :)
It's Singapore's 49th birthday and the intrepid team celebrated National Day way earlier than many others as we crawled out of our bed for a 3.30am departure to Pulau Hantu!
With the news release of Singapore's first Marine Park at the Sisters' Island, the two islands have received a lot of limelight. According to National Parks Board, the Sisters’ Islands Marine Park will be a platform for outreach, educational, conservation and research activities related to our native marine biodiversity. The location was chosen due to its variety of habitats including coral reefs, sandy shores and seagrass areas.
For regular trippers who have been surveying the Sisters' Island, visiting the Big Sisters' Island today was more like meeting an old friend despite its new status. :)
On 14 July 2014, a small team visited East Coast Park at a very low spring tide to check out the colourful sea fans and other encrusted organisms. A sea slug was found! We also popped by another location to take a look at the seagrasses.
On 12 July 2014, we visited Cyrene Reef during predawn hours, starting the trip at 4am. Several marine critters that shy away from sunlight appear at these hours. Let the photos below do the talking for what we saw on this trip.
On the last of our six-day consecutive field trip series, Ria and I visited a natural rocky shore of Changi to check if the recent sponge-less situation at Chek Jawa and Pulau Sekudu has also affected the mainland shores.
