Tanjung Rimau Security Barriers - Some changes and slight improvements

The sky presented itself with a beautiful sunset as I did an update on the security barriers at Tanjung Rimau, Sentosa.

Sunset from Sentosa

How have the security barriers progressed after my last visit in August 2013? Were there improvements done or has situation worsened?

Cephaly, Fidderly and Tape Flowery at Semakau

It was a rather hot day today as we journey to Pulau Semakau for another intertidal survey session. The team had visited this part of the shore a few months ago on National Day.

We passed by quite close to the fish farm next to Semakau. There is a barge right next to the fish farm loaded with stacks of bags which may be fish food. On the barge (right side on the photo), there seems to be a large rectangular metal container used for incinerating things. I could see smoke coming out of the rectangular container and smelled something being burnt.

Anchored barge with stacks of white sacks.

Neatly constructed shelter

More than 160 kg of rubbish found on Pulau Ubin shores [English news report]

Following up on the Chinese news report about the coastal trash on the Nothern part of Pulau Ubin, Channel News Asia and Today newspaper reported about the same news in English. My friend has updated that on the same evening the Chinese news clip was broadcasted, the English news also reported about it with a separate video clip.

In case you have missed the videos or did not read my previous post, here are the videos

Channel 8 News (Chinese)

Channel NewsAsia (English)


Here is the news article accompanying the English video clip:

SINGAPORE: A recent clean-up of the beaches at Pulau Ubin led by Outward Bound Singapore saw more than 160 kilogrammes of waste being collected.

Volunteers found fishing nets and abandoned barrels among the usual plastic bags and bottles in the rubbish deposited at Pulau Ubin's northern shores.

Chua Li San, head of character and curriculum development at Outward Bound Singapore, said: "We don't know what is actually being contained in those barrels. Is it petroleum or is it some other petrochemical waste?

"The fishing nets... we don't know if any fishes or birds will be trapped by the nets.

"Is cleaning the beach the only solution? We need to do something more extensively... to educate people."

Fishermen said they usually bring their rubbish to the collection point at the nearby Marina Country Club and added that some of the waste could have floated over from kelongs at the opposite shores of neighbouring countries.

The Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority said it is an offence for fish farmers to dispose waste into sea waters.

- CNA/ec

Coastal Trash at Northern Ubin [Chinese News Report]

A few days ago, Ria wrote a blog post about fish farm trash found and removed from the northern shore of Pulau Ubin despite the coastline being lined with security fence. The cleanup activity was coordinated by Chua Li San from Outward Bound Singapore. Officers from the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) and the National Environment Agency (NEA) were invited to view the situation from the seaward side. You can read more about from Ria's blog post here.

Today, Mediacorp's Channel 8 evening and night newscast reported about this situation and interviewed a few fish farms nearby.

Here is the news clip from Channel 8 news' youtube channel.

For the benefit of my readers who do not understand Chinese, I have translated the content of the video. It is not 100% translated but I tried my best to translate as accurately as possible the main points covered in the news report. I also did the Chinese transcribe of the video.

Translation (Coastal trash at Northern Ubin)The northern shore of Pulau Ubin is often seen littered with large amount of trash. In the most recent cleanup event, volunteers removed 165 kg of trash within a day. News reporter found out that among the list of items removed are abandoned fishnets and chemical containing plastic drums. These items may pose threats to and damage the ecological environment.  

Narrator: 

Otter rolling around on the sand, heron resting on the fence. However, oil drums, styrofoam boxes and plastic bags are littering all around. Outward Bound Singapore (OBS), who regularly organises coastal cleanup for the public volunteers, commented that such sights are common.  

Interviewee (OBS): 

Just two weeks after the cleanup, we found a refrigerator here. Why are there still oil drums present? Why are there still items used by the fish farms found here?  

Narrator: 

In the nearby fish farms, a fish farmer commented that the fish farms dispose their trash in the marina country club nearby. As for the oil drums, it is possible that they were either not securely tied or dislodged by the strong waves.  

Interviewee (Fish farm): 

During presence of strong waves, the ropes securing the drums may break, resulting in the drums to be displaced and float out. The direction in which the drums float to depends on the direction of the wind.The wire fences on the security barriers are old and damaged with holes. At high tide, if the trash is floating near the holes on the fence, they will be washed through towards the shore.  

Narrator: 

The fish farmers also feedback that sometimes during strong northerly winds, trash from the kelong of neighbouring country also gets swept in the direction of Pulau Ubin. Volunteers have noticed fish trapped and killed by abandoned fishnets along the coastline. Disposed plastic drums are found to have contained chemicals.  

Reporter: 

Although OBS and public volunteers have access to this Northern shore on Pulau Ubin to conduct cleanup sessions, it was not enough to resolve the root cause of this problem – a measure to control those who discard trash illegally or those who are irresponsible in their trash management. It is unknown, at the moment, the kind of marine damage or pollution these trash can cause. Personnel from AVA and NEA visited this area last Saturday (5 October 2013) to conduct some checks. AVA emphasised that it is an offence for fish farmers to dispose their trash into the sea. Currently, no one has been fined for such offence.

I'll be glad to update this translation should you have better translated sentence(s).

Seems like the fish farmer made it sound so easy for the floating trash to just pass through the broken security fence during high tide. I am sure that some of the items removed from the shore could not float. So how did these items get onto the shore then?
I do have some doubts about the accuracy of information in this news report.

What about you? I welcome you to raise any questions you might have from this news report. Just drop me a comment with your name.

Marine animals crowd at Tanah Merah on a beautiful sunset

Tanah Merah has one of few quiet hidden shores tucked away from the hustle and bustle of urban pace.
It is surprising to see how well the Ribbon seagrass (Cymodocea rotundata) has settled very well on this shore and is expanding its coverage area.

Spread of Ribbon seagrass
[Photo by Ria Tan]

The Ribbon seagrass on this shore is so thick that they form a thick seagrass carpet when the tide goes down has the strap-like grass blades fall and intertwined with each other.

Owl, snakes and spiders at Pasir Ris Mangrove Boardwalk

It was a great trip with the Naked Hermit Crabs at Pasir Ris Mangrove Boardwalk. After a long break from Pasir Ris, the guided decided to conduct a free guided walk during this September school holidays. Despite a small group everyone saw amazing animals in this short 1 hour walk.

Located with a short walk for Pasir Ris Park Carpark C is a patch of replanted mangrove that has flourished along the banks of Sungei Tampines, and even on the coastline near the river mouth.

The visitors were looking forward to spotting animals as they entered the nearest entrance to the mangrove boardwalk. Little did they know that an golden orb spider is looming just above their parents' head.

Golden orb spider

Of Whirlpools and Cyclones - Embracing and Enjoying Science by Prof Leo Tan

This morning, I attended a distinguished science lecture series organised by the Science Teachers Association of Singapore (STAS) and the Singapore Science Centre. This happened to be the first lecture series organised by STAS. The guest speaker to kick start the inaugural lecture series is Professor Leo Tan.

The first Distinguished Science Lecture Series.

Prof Leo Tan is a professor of Biological Sciences, Director of Special Projects, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore. He is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Science, Singapore.

Running allowed at Chek Jawa?

While waiting for the monthly Naked Hermit Crabs guided walk to begin at Chek Jawa's information kiosk, some of us noticed runners donned in lime green t-shirts running into Chek Jawa Wetlands. They turned into the steep down sloped gravel terrain, which leads them towards the Tg Chek Jawa Muslim Cemetery and the back mangrove.

Running down the gravel slope.

Anniversary walk at Chek Jawa

Today marks a special milestone for the Naked Hermit Crabs. The volunteer group is celebrating 6 years of guided walk at Chek Jawa! I may not be a 6 years old nature guide with them but I'm glad to be part of this "celebration" right here at Chek Jawa.

I'm the crazy person looking into the binoculars on the extreme left.
[Photo by Ria Tan]

Amazing reef at Pulau Semakau's northern shore

Pulau Semakau, the island where many people know it as a landfill island being filled up by ash of incinerated rubbish disposed by us on Mainland Singapore. Not many people are aware of the flora and fauna beauty of Semakau. On the western side of this landfill island is an intertidal beauty consisting of mangrove trees, seagrass and coral reef along the reef edge.

Map of Semakau Lanfill and nearby submerged reefs.
[Google map by Ria Tan]

The shoreline is pretty long. You can probably walk the whole shore within the intertidal period if you only focus on the walking aspect, do nothing but walk.

Huge sea star and orange flatworm at Chek Jawa

Exactly one month ago,  a small team of us visited Chek Jawa for an intertidal survey trip. During that trip, we covered the Eastern and Northeastern part of Chek Jawa. You can read about my sightings from my earlier post about that trip.

Today we visited Chek Jawa again for another intertidal survey, but we started from the Southern side (in front of House No. 1) and worked our way towards the Chek Jawa front beacon.

Chek Jawa Front beacon

We started off by checking the pillars of the jetty in front of House No. 1 at Chek Jawa.

First step on the land of FROG.

Off the southeastern coast of Pulau Ubin sits a little island. During high tide, all you can see are rocks emerging from the splashing waves, and maybe some land. During a very low spring tide, this island reveals its hidden land full of life.

This not-so-little little island is Pulau Sekudu, or Frog Island. There are no frogs congregating on the island (though I think I heard some croaking going on). Pulau Sekudu got its name from a legend. You can read about the legend from this webpage done up by Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research (RMBR).

It was the first time I place my foot on this island. The very first animal that "welcomed" me was an anemone.

Anemone, almost completely retracted.

Updates on Security Barrier at Tanjung Rimau, Sentosa

Today I visited Tg Rimau at Sentosa for a purpose in mind. I wanted to check out on the security barriers placed on this shore and have a visual update since my last visit in April 2013. It was a chilly and windy short walk to the shore, located right next to Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa Resort & Spa Singapore. Even the water was cold early in the morning.

I was rather astound by the sight when I reached the beach.

Tg Rimau with the security barrier visible on the shore.

The security barrier line looked very different from what I saw in April 2013, which I blogged about it in my post here.

Snakey and Galloping National Day at Semakau

This morning's trip brings us to a corner of Semakau intertidal area less explored. Some of the team members are excited about this trip because of some special animals that was sighted on this shore. One of them is the Galloping seastar (Stellaster equestris).

I have never seen a galloping seastar before and I was not expecting myself to be the one to find the galloping seastar at Semakau this morning, but I did!

Galloping seastar, overview

Shouting "Galloping!" out loud on the shore, many of the team members came from all directions and distances to see this amazing seastar. Kok Sheng was the fastest walker amongst them all as this was what he was looking forward to on this trip.

New surprises at Cyrene Reef with Large seastar and Cone snail

Cyrene Reef never fails to surprise us. Seated in a major shipping lane surrounded by the container terminal on the mainland and petrochemical plants on two island, there is always something interesting to see during each intertidal trip despite its location.

What a large Astropecten sp. seastar I found trying to burrow itself into the sand. It is as big has my hand!

Size of Astropecten seastar

Shield bugs, and Monkey and Wild Boar business at Chek Jawa

After a busy series of biodiversity event happening around Singapore in June and July, I am back guiding with the Naked Hermit Crabs at Chek Jawa for the month of August.

As usual, the wild boar troop graciously welcome visitors to Chek Jawa.

Wild boar piglets have grown so big.

Wow! The wild boar piglets have grown so big. I still fondly remember them small and cute with watermelon stripes on their body.

My first Chek Jawa intertidal survey trip

'If music be the food of love, play on.' - Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare

It is not the sound of love when many mosquitos were buzzing close to my ears throughout the intertidal survey trip at Chek Jawa. This trip has got to be the earliest intertidal survey trip I had ever embarked on. The mosquitos were not the only organisms expressing their "love" to me. My nose was also expressing its "love" to me as I sniff, sniff, sniff and even more sniffing throughout the whole time I was on the shore.

My nose and the mosquitos may be hindering my attention span on the shore, but my vision did not fail me. On my very first intertidal survey trip on Chek Jawa, there are many interesting critters to be seen.

Reaching the shore at about 2am, the tide was still quite high for the coral rubble area to be exposed. We began our survey by checking the pillars that supports the boardwalk along the coast. It was full of life.

There were plenty of these tube structures weaved on the pillar surfaces, which I think are worm tubes.

Worm tubes?

Festival of Biodiversity 2013

The Festival of Biodiversity is back this year!

This year the festival is going to Vivocity to reach out to more members of the public.

There is a line of activities planned for both days, ranging from Art & Craft Workshops to Storytelling Sessions. Click on the links of each activity to find out more. All activities are free, on a first-come-first serve basis.

A launch of the festival will take place on the 13 July, Saturday, at 11:30am.

Running on 13 and 14 July, exhibitions will showcase 'Our Natural Heritage' and 'Year of Snakes in Singapore 2013'.

For more information about the festival, check out http://www.nparks.gov.sg/festivalofbiodiversity/index.php.

Special shrimp and parchment worm at Changi

What a pretty shrimp found on a Haddon's carpet anemone (Stichodactyla haddoni). According to Marcus Ng, it is Ancyclomenes holthuisi.

Ancyclomenes holthuisi

This shrimp was found on the very last carpet anemone that I was checking on for the usual Five-spot anemone shrimp (Periclimenes brevicarpalis) today at Changi Beach. Even Ria was intrigued by this special shrimp.

Surprises at East Coast

There were at least 5 Basket stars spotted on pretty Sea fans on the shore along East Coast Park beach this morning.

Basket star on pink sea fan.

If you think that the beach along East Coast Park is plain and just full of sand, perhaps this blog post might change your perspective.

For a great laughter - Marine animals in the haze.

As we found 6 Masked burrowing crabs (Gomeza sp.) this morning, one of us made a simple joke about the current haze situation in Singapore with the crabs.

Later in the afternoon Kok Sheng came up with an image for laughter:

I decided to create a few...

Enjoy the laugh!

Masked Burrowing Crab and Special Snail at sandy Changi

A female Masked burrowing crab (Gomeza sp.) with eggs was found at Changi during the Comprehensive Marine Biodiversity Surevy (CMBS) Northern Expedition held last October. This special crab was sighted today at the exact location. In fact, the team found 6 of them!

Masked burrowing crab

As the common name suggests, the Masked burrowing crab burrows and stay in the sand. It is difficult to spot the crab when it is burrowed. However the crabs were out in laying motionless on the sand and seagrass patches. What was the reason for this strange behaviour?

Seastars, Sea Cucumber, Seahorse and interesting Flatworm at less hazy Changi

A team head out for Changi shore this morning with haze condition of about 89 on a 3hr PSI.

What is so special about this part of Changi shore would be the hard-to-spot-at-first Armoured sea cucumber.

Armoured sea cucumber

The Armoured sea cucumber is easily overlooked as ascidian or hard coral. Covered with silt, it blends in very well on the silt covered surface and looked just like any other blobs. Only when the first Armoured sea cucumber is spotted, the rest appear magically.

Nemo, Fantail Rays and Giant Clam at Terumbu Bemban, CMBS

It's the second day of reef survey for the Comprehensive Marine Biodiversity Survey (CMBS) Southern Expedition. At 3am, bigger group of staff, scientists and volunteers gathered at the dinning area for breakfast. There are 3 teams heading out for reef survey this morning, all to different locations - Big Sisters' Island, Terumbu Bemban and Beting Bemban Besar.

It was important to sort the teams right before boarding the 2 boats by Summit Marine System. Terumbu Bemban and Beting Bemban Besar may just be next to each other, but efficiency in transporting the correct people to the correct location is crucial as we have limited time on the exposed submerged reef due to the low tide window.

Pre-departure briefing and boat sorting.
Image by Ivan Kwan

First Predawn Reef Survey for CMBS at Terumbu Semakau

It has been 6 days since the Southern Expedition for the Comprehensive Marine Biodiversity Survey (CMBS) started. Yesterday was my first time stepping into the base camp for the expedition, meeting familiar and new faces. I am involved in CMBS as a volunteer since Dec 2010 as a regular volunteer. The Southern Expedition is the second expedition event I had participated in, with the first at the Northern Expedition held in October last year.

Prof Peter Ng takes special transport to base camp, a foldie.
Image from my twitter.

Seahorses and Giant clam at Big Sisters Island

Another great day out in the field today as we explore Big Sisters' Island.
As soon as we started, Ria found a pair of Tiger-tail seahorse (Hippocampus comes).

Tiger-tail seahorse (Hippocampus comes)

Giant Clam and Handsome Shrimp at Pulau Hantu

It was a great day at Pulau Hantu this morning. The team found about 5 giant clams growing on the outer reef patch!

Photo by Kok Sheng on his Facebook.

However I only see one giant clam with the help of Marcus.

Giant clam, with my size 8 booties as size reference.

Another great day at Chek Jawa with the Naked Hermit Crabs

It is the first Saturday of the month again. The Naked Hermit Crab had another great guided walk with our visitors at Chek Jawa this morning. Despite the hot and humid weather our visitors sure had fun and enjoyed themselves looking the critters of Chek Jawa. We had a great turnout of about 80 visitors, with some joining the walk on the spot.

As usual, a group photo of our visitors before the walk.

Sentosa shore is crabby alive

So many swimming crabs swimming around the shallow waters of Sentosa shore. They looked like they are playing catching with us.

Swimming crab

Security Barriers at Tanjung Rimau, Sentosa

In a blog post written by Ria Tan dated on 7 January 2013, she noticed the floating security barriers have been put up along the Sentosa shoreline by the Marin Police. Before that Ria mentioned in another post dated 26 June 2012 about the note from Port Marine Notice (dated 20 April 2012) about the construction of floating sea barrier at Sentosa Cove. In the notice, a map drawing shows the barrier possibly ending off at Tanjung Rimau, just off Rasa Sentosa.

Here are the images Ria took on 7 January:

Celebrating Earth Day with the Naked Hermit Crabs at Pasir Ris mangrove boardwalk with Buffy fish owl and Hornbill

Last weekend, Singapore's nature community was buzzing with activities to celebrate Earth Day. This year Earth Day falls on the 22nd April 2013, which is a Monday.

The Naked Hermit Crabs did not forget about celebration Earth Day too. We held a free public guided walk at Pasir Ris Park mangrove boardwalk for 15 visitors. We saw many interesting things we usually did not get to spot thanks to other kind park users.

A very special find for both the guides and the visitor was the Buffy fish owl. It was the first time seeing the owl for many of us, including me. Thanks to Ivan's friend, Ho Yong Tze, for showing it to us.

Buffy fish owl
[Photo by Sean Yap]

Crab eating macaques during Chek Jawa guided walk

For the first time I get to meet Mr Crab Eating Macaque up close at Chek Jawa today, at the monthly Naked Hermit Crabs free guided walk.

Crab eating macaque

Waking up to a grey sky in the morning and with NEA's weather animation showing massive storm clouds passing by the southern parts of Singapore all the way to Batam, it was a relieve that we will not be hit by heavy rain. The weather was rather cooling this morning as I head out for Pulau Ubin with the other guides from the Naked Hermit Crabs and my 4 students to Chek Jawa.

Family group photo at the coastal boardwalk.
The children and parents enjoyed themselves.

Guiding at Pasir Ris Magorve with the Naked Hermit Crabs

The Naked Hermit Crabs are back on the guided walk at Pasir Ris mangrove!
Despite the heavy downpour in the western part of Singapore, it was relatively dry at Pasir Ris Park. Organising my first guided walk at Pasir Ris mangroves for the year, I saw a turnout of about 30 visitors  of various ages. It was heartening to see our past visitors joining us for the same walk again.

It is great to see families bring their children out to experience nature.

Children observing a snail on the underside of a leaf and asking all kinds of questions.

Mud lobster sighting and 8 new wild boar piglets at Chek Jawa

Today at the entrance to Chek Jawa, the guides and visitors were greeted with two adult wild boars and 8 piglets born very recently. The piglets are so small and cute!

2 adults and 8 piglets feeding on bread.

Stunning sunset with critters of St. John's Island

While exploring the shores of St. John's Island, everyone suddenly paused at where they were and started admiring the beautiful sunset, bidding goodbye to the second day of the lunar new year.

Sunset at St. John's Island

We were lucky to be on the outer edge of the water snake that visited from the northeastern side and turned in the clockwise direction on the boundary of mainland Singapore. At the beginning part of the trip, we experienced mild drizzle.

Big Sisters in the year of the water snake

Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year, the year of the water snake. It has been raining for the whole day and the team was worried it will continue to rain during our fieldtrip session in the evening.

I started out the fieldtrip slightly different today. Instead of heading straight to the lagoon, I went to check out the crinoids with Kok Sheng first. We saw many pretty crinoids of various size and colours.

Red crinoid

Lontong and Mangrove tree at P.Ubin

I always wonder what the hype is about with the Sunday-only lontong at Pak Ali's shop on Pulau Ubin until I tried it today.

Image from Pulau Ubin Stories

Checking out marine life of Chek Jawa with TeamSeagrass

Today is my first trip with other members of TeamSeagrass and we are doing monitoring at Chek Jawa.  I helped to guide two new teamseagrass members with the monitoring session.

It was a hot day but thank goodness, the wind helped to ease the heat a bit. After the monitoring, we all had some time to check out the shore of Chek Jawa.

Upon arrival at Chek Jawa, we were greeted with the sight of mama pig and her piglet feeding on food she pushed off from the bicycle basket. The wild boars are able to smell food kept high above ground, like a bicycle basket, and they are smart enough to knock off the bicycle in order to get the food. From the image below, this pair of wild boar even tore the packaging of the can drinks.

Wild boars helping themselves to human food by knocking them off bicycle baskets.

Giant octopus on a busy Changi shore

On this short window of low tides for January, I made my last trip for the month yesterday to a shore at Changi. This shore is packed with human activities, from visitors to the coastal boardwalk, fishermen netting in the shallow waters to ordinary visitors digging the substrate for clams. Despite the heavy rained that happened just minutes ago, there are still many visitors to the shore.

The weather changed very quickly. After the heavy shower, it drizzled for a while before the sun came out.

What makes this shore special is the sea fan sticking out from the shallow murky water during low tide. They come in a variety of colour and sizes.

Bending orange sea fan, probably dur to its weight with low tide.

Hidden world of Punggol beach

With the upgrade waterfront area at Punggol beach, it has attracted many families and cyclist to this small stretched. Despite the numerous human activities going on here, the marine life at Punggol beach is as many as the beach visitors. Often, most of them goes unnoticed and unappreciated by humans.

Punggol Beach and Jetty

Even on a not so low tide, a vast patch of rocky area to the right of the jetty is exposed for families to bring their children down to search and explore the place for marine life. 

Very well hidden in tiny pool, if not noticed carefully, are tiny anemones. The colours of the tiny anemones are very close to the sandy substrate it is on. These are probably the banded bead anemones (Anthopleura sp.)

Banded bead anemone

Banded bead anemone

Suspicious jerking snail shells suggest a hermit crab in it and it was noticed to be foraging for food. On the shore of Punggol beach, the banded hermit crab seems to be the dominate ones. Hermit crabs are to look at and may be pretty for children to keep them as pets. However wild animals dies quickly in captivity. It is good enough to observe these cute animals in the wild and leave them where they belong to.

Foraging banded hermit crab

Frontal view of the hermit crab.

Spreading all over the rocky areas and the jetty pillars, the bunches of glassy looking strands are actually the glassy branching bryozoans. Unfortunatly, I am not able to provide an exact common name for the orange sponge.

Glassy branching bryozoans with orange sponge and delicate feathery green seaweed

Orange sponge, some covered by bryozoans.

During last year's comprehensive marine biodiversity survey, a sea slug was found on these bryozoans. On this trip, many of the sea slug was seen. The Okenia pellucida is the species of sea slug found on the bryozoan.

Okenia pellucida, on bryozoan

Very well hidden are the brittle stars, which are hardly seen in the day as they are very shy animals.

Brittle star

Crawling around on the encrusted rocks are tiny crabs of various species, some of which scurry into hiding when sensing motion nearby. Of the crabs I managed to observe was this. I didn't manage to get a clear shot of the dorsal view

Underside of the crab

Other crabs seen on this trip:

Moon crab

The team also found another type of sea slug - Beaded nudibranch (Hoplodoris nodulosa).

Beaded nudibranch (Hoplodoris nodulosa)

Rhinophores

Feathery gills

I also saw two types of bristle worms on the shore, one of which could be a fireworm. Bristleworms are difficult to identify to species level without a close look at the head.

Bristleworm

Fireworm

At the edge of the rocky patch on the shore, I noticed a patch of seagrass. However the tides was not low enough for me to take a closer look at them. Towards the end of the trip, I found a stand of broken seagrass caught on a washed up branch. It looks similar to a spoon seagrass (Halophila ovalis), but it has longer leaf blades. Could it be the hairy spoon seagrass (Halophila decipiens)?

Patch of seagrass

The seagrass I found caught on a branch.

During the trip, I saw a young boy walking towards the water and later he was seen to be pulling the ropes attached to the fish trap. It turn out, there were actually two fish traps placed. Shortly after, he was joined by an adult, who seems to be his father. They checked the fish traps, probably removing the catch, threw the traps back into the water and left.

Boy pulling the rope.

Examining the fish trap.

The marine life at Punggol beach is what I would consider, a hidden world, with all the human activities going on. Life during the day may be less exciting as compared to night, but it is still as interesting.

Posts by others on this trip:
Kok Sheng - Colourful sponge garden at Punggol
Ria Tan - Colourful Punggol rocky shore