Last Saturday morning, I dragged myself out of bed at 4.50am to join a group of Nparks volunteers and Ria Tan of Wild Singapore for a trip to Cyrene Reef. Where? I must say that was my initial reaction when I heard from Ling Ling that she was organising a trip there for the volunteers. While most of us would probably have heard of the biodiversity of Chek Jawa, Pulau Hantu or even Pulau Semakau, Cyrene Reef is certainly not a familiar name. However, that’s something which Ria is certainly hoping to change because Cyrene Reef is simply an unbelievable treasure trove. Unfortunately it’s located in an extremely precarious location and hopefully with greater awareness of its fantastic biodiversity, more can be done for its protection.
Here are some of the highlights of our trip.
No, this is not a picture of illegal immigrants making a landing. This is how we actually arrived on the reef. We took a really nice boat from Keppel Marina which took us near the reef, after which we transferred to a dinghy to make our landing. I forgot to mention that the reason why we had to be up so early was to catch the low tide as Cyrene Reef is submerged at other times.
There was plenty of soft and hard coral.
Omelette soft coral
Carpet Anemone. Fantastic green colour! If you zoom in on the little pool of water in the middle, you can actually see the tentacles!
More soft corals that looked like some alien lifeform.
This is a yellow many coned sponge. It reminds me a little of the Citron fruit or something the Chinese call Fuo Shou Guo – Buddha Hand Fruit.
There were also tons of Common Sea Stars embedded in the sand EVERYWHERE. I’m sorry to say I may have stepped on a few without realizing it. Here’s a picture of a pair mating! In case you were wondering, the one on top is the male trying his best not to let the female shake him off. More info about their mating rituals here!
Apart from the reefy areas that we started from, there are large parts ofCyrene
Peacock anemone. I’m sure they would look even prettier underwater.
See the leaves floating in the water? They are actually fish! Scroll down!
Here’s close up of what they actually look like. They are called Razor Fish and they do look like the traditional razors that some barbers still use, don't they?
I think this is a species of sea urchin. Different from the more common mean looking black ones that I’ve see in some dying reefs.
Here’s a fierce flower crab showing off its pincers to us. It was really brave because we were all surrounding it and it didn’t budge an inch!
Edible sea cucumber.
As we approached the end of our walk, we came upon a huge Knobbly Sea Star gathering. As Ling Ling commented - all doing yoga in the sun.
We ended our walk at about 9am when the tide started coming in, which was a real pity because I really could have spent the whole day there. It has really been a long time since I've gone diving and this trip triggered the desire again. Who knows, maybe Hantu next? In the meantime, here's one of my favourite pictures.
Cyrene Reef is actually located (in the middle of the sea) somewhere between Pasir Panjang, Pulau Bukom and Jurong Island
Here are some of the highlights of our trip.
No, this is not a picture of illegal immigrants making a landing. This is how we actually arrived on the reef. We took a really nice boat from Keppel Marina which took us near the reef, after which we transferred to a dinghy to make our landing. I forgot to mention that the reason why we had to be up so early was to catch the low tide as Cyrene Reef is submerged at other times.
The sunrise was beautiful. Apparently, thanks in part to the ash from the unpronounceable Icelandic volcano.
There was plenty of soft and hard coral.
Omelette soft coral
Carpet Anemone. Fantastic green colour! If you zoom in on the little pool of water in the middle, you can actually see the tentacles!
More soft corals that looked like some alien lifeform.
This is a yellow many coned sponge. It reminds me a little of the Citron fruit or something the Chinese call Fuo Shou Guo – Buddha Hand Fruit.
There were also tons of Common Sea Stars embedded in the sand EVERYWHERE. I’m sorry to say I may have stepped on a few without realizing it. Here’s a picture of a pair mating! In case you were wondering, the one on top is the male trying his best not to let the female shake him off. More info about their mating rituals here!
Apart from the reefy areas that we started from, there are large parts of
Peacock anemone. I’m sure they would look even prettier underwater.
See the leaves floating in the water? They are actually fish! Scroll down!
Here’s close up of what they actually look like. They are called Razor Fish and they do look like the traditional razors that some barbers still use, don't they?
Was quite lucky to chance upon a shrimp shoveling sand out of its hole like a bulldozer.
I think this is a species of sea urchin. Different from the more common mean looking black ones that I’ve see in some dying reefs.
Here’s a fierce flower crab showing off its pincers to us. It was really brave because we were all surrounding it and it didn’t budge an inch!
Edible sea cucumber.
As we approached the end of our walk, we came upon a huge Knobbly Sea Star gathering. As Ling Ling commented - all doing yoga in the sun.
Sea Grapes? No its actually Bubble Seaweed
We ended our walk at about 9am when the tide started coming in, which was a real pity because I really could have spent the whole day there. It has really been a long time since I've gone diving and this trip triggered the desire again. Who knows, maybe Hantu next? In the meantime, here's one of my favourite pictures.
Amazing...you should dive the reef to map and document it.
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