Labrador (11 Jan 2013)

Pei Yan and I are back on Labrador to check up on the seagrasses here.

Some parts of this beleaguered shore still has good growths of seagrasses and they were blooming!

Alas, the weather turned ugly as soon as we arrived on the shore. We seem to get rain at Labrador, it was also very wet on our last monitoring trip in Nov 12.

When we thought there was a break in the wet weather, we headed out to monitor. Alas, in the midst of monitoring it started to pour again!

I couldn't really get a good look at the Site 2 portion of the shore due to the rain and because the tide wasn't really as low as it should be. What I saw didn't have much seagrasses. Just a few small patches of Spoon seagrass (Halophila ovalis) and one patch of Tape seagrass (Enhalus acoroides).

The seagrasses at Site 1 nearest the entrance to the shore are still doing well!

There were lots of Sickle seagrass (Thalassia hemprichii) with Spoon seagrass (Halophila ovalis) nearer the high water mark, and nice long Tape seagrass (Enhalus acoroides). It was good to see nice long Tape seagrasses, 50-60cm long as they should be.

The Tape seagrasses were blooming! I saw one clump with a female flower and a developing fruit. The female flower is on a long stalk with the important flower parts floating on the water surface, waiting to meet with a male flower.

Near the rocky area, I saw several clumps of Tape seagrasses with male flowers.

The male flowers emerge from large bracts that form at the base of the plant (not on long stalks like the female flowers).

Male flowers are tiny and 'stand up' on a wet finger because one end is attracted to water, while the other end repels water. In this way, they float on the water surface and hopefully, meet with a female flower.

Sadly, one clump of Tape seagrass near the high shore had some leaf blades cropped short.

Thanks to Pei Yan for monitoring Site 3! Our sense is that things haven't changed much seagrass-wise since our last Labrador monitoring in Nov 12.

Labrador shore and the jetty are now permanently closed to the public due to safety issues. The natural cliffs along the shore are not very stable. Thanks to Yuet Hsin of NParks for permission to monitor.

For years, next to Labrador, there has been massive reclamation, dredging  and other coastal works for the new Pasir Panjang Container Terminal which includes underwater blasting. Hopefully, as the massive construction nearby comes to an end, the seagrasses and other marine life at Labrador can return. It is only through long-term monitoring that we can learn more about what is happening on this shore.

More about other sightings during the trip on the wild shores of singapore blog.