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Land of Leatheries: Terumbu Pempang Tengah Huge leathery soft corals colonies of various shapes and colours crowd the southern part of Terumbu Pempang Tengah! Even though this submerged reef lies near Jurong Island and major shipping lanes. Today, I also came across two Fluted giant clams, and I didn't see any mass coral bleaching. Kok Sheng surveyed a reefy part of the shore and saw a wide variety of healthy corals. There have always been a wide variety of Leathery soft corals on the shore. Some resemble fried omelette, others look like discarded gloves. Each is a colony is made up of countl...

Terumbu Bemban still reefy A glorious sunrise as we head out to Terumbu Bemban, a submerged reef off Pulau Semakau. The last time we were here in  Jun 2020 it was to check for mass coral bleaching.  We didn't see much bleaching last  year, and today, I saw mostly healthy corals. The team also found a large Fluted giant clam, lots of 'Nemos', a seahorse and other interesting marine life. There is a small area here densely covered with hard corals. Healthy corals are usually brown. Indeed, I was relieved to see that this reefy stretch was alright, although there was one white bleaching cor...

Coral overload at Pulau Hantu Although it lies just across the petrochemical plants on Pulau Bukom, there are living reefs, seagrasses and even mangroves on Pulau Hantu.  On our last survey in Jul 2020, mass coral bleaching was seen here as well as many other shores. It was thus a relief today, to see no signs of mass bleaching in the hard corals and leathery soft corals.  Today, I am relieved to see many healthy, large, well-formed colonies of hard corals of various kinds. I was particularly glad to see large healthy colonies of Branching horn corals. I didn't see them on the Jul 2020 ...

Two-clam day at Pulau Semakau (East) We survey the rich reefs on Pulau Semakau (East) that lies next to the Landfill and opposite petrochemical plants on Pulau Bukom. The thunderstorm cleared soon after, for a magical muted sunrise. It was a relief to see no mass coral bleaching. We also came across two Giant clams! I witnessed a struggle between snake and fish and the rest of the team saw rare snails and nudibranchs, and other interesting marine life. This amazing reef lies right next to the landfill (the landfill seawall on the horizon in this photo). Here's a better photo of the marine lif...