Cyrene Reef (10 August 2013)

TeamSeagrass celebrates another National Day on Cyrene Reef!

TeamSeagrass <3 Singapore!

And what a lovely, sunny day it was!


But no time to dilly or dally. It's straight to work once we land! The equipment is quickly laid out and a very brief briefing is given before we set off to our respective sites.

Over at Site 1 Transect 3, I noticed that the tape seagrasses (Enhalus acoroides) were cropped. This has been noted for some time now. The exact cause of this cropping hasn't been identified, but we made a similar observation at Pulau Semakau during our last monitoring. It will be interesting to revisit past data to see what crops up in terms of similarity between the two sites. Further analysis is needed before we can decide if the seagrasses are being impacted and what the proximate causes might be, which stresses the importance of continued monitoring and data collection by TeamSeagrass.

Discussing seagrass coverage at Site 1

Laying the tape at Site 2

Although the seagrass was rather sparse along my transect, I encountered many animals going about their day. There were swimming anemones, hermit crabs, common sea stars, and a pipefish!

Using the calibration sheets to determine seagrass coverage while a common sea star (Archaster typicus) calmly goes about its day.

Soon enough, it was time to wrap up the monitoring session and make our way home. But not before snapping some photos of the knobbly sea stars (Protoreaster nodosus).

Johnson spots some knobbly sea stars celebrating National Day

Siti stands in for the crescent moon

The first group gets on the dinghy as the tide comes in. Uh-oh. Looks like the boatman is having some trouble setting off; must be 'cause the dinghy is rather heavily loaded. With a little help from the other team members, we soon send the dinghy on its way.

Siti shows us how it's done

Everyone gets back on the mainland safe and sound thanks to Alex and his team. Hurray! Another successful monitoring session under our belts.

After a quick breakfast, some team members head to a washing point at an undisclosed location. Here, the equipment is rinsed and hung up to dry, ready for the next monitoring session.

Washing the equipment

Many thanks to the team that monitored today: Chay Hoon, Jerome, Jonathan, Johnson, Kok Sheng, Nor Aishah and Yin Xin. Special thanks to Ms Rachel Lim and Sam Lai from NParks as well as Siti the lead scientist.

Till the next trip!

Photo credits: Johnson Ong, Siti M. Yaakub, Rachel Lim and Nor Aishah

Other posts about this trip

• Johnson Ong celebrates National Day with knobbly sea stars