05 December 2017

Living rocky shores of Pulau Ubin

We return to an underwater garden at Pulau Ubin on a rare daylight low tide.
Exploring Pulau Ubin rocky shores
It was a delight of seafans, sponges, soft corals and more!

The water is murky, the shore is next to busy shipping. And yet, the rocky shore is alive with colourful marine life!
Living rocky shore at Pulau Ubin
Colourful sponges and other creatures crowd the lowest parts of the rocky shore which is only seldom exposed at super low tides.
Living rocky shore at Pulau Ubin
A look at some of the marine life on a rock.
Living rocky shore at Pulau Ubin
We last visited in July 2017. It was nice to see that the sponges remained abundant, in various kinds and colours.
In deeper water, there were all kinds of sea fans. Today, the tide was not as low as during our last trip in July 2017 when we saw many more sea fans.
I saw many Haddon's carpet anemones, most seemed alright. I also saw patches of Posy anemones, lots of Lined bead anemones, and Banded bead anemones of various kinds.
Colourful soft corals included Pink flowery soft corals, Ball flowery soft corals as well as Knobbly soft corals. There were small patches of Zebra hard coral. And also some Stinging hydroids.
I saw many blobs of Ball-tip corallimorphs in many different bright colours!
I saw several feather stars,  a few large Biscuit sea stars and some Orange sea cucumbers and many Sponge synaptid sea cucumbers.
Other creatures included Bryozoans and Ascidians.  I saw many Thumbs up ascidians and Yellow clustered ascidians. There were many Onyx cowries too.
Alas, we continue to see fish traps on the shore. This one looks like its on 'standby'.
Fish trap on living rocky shore
A fish trap in deeper water peeks out during this low spring tide.
Fish trap on living rocky shore
There are also some patches of Spoon seagrass on the shore.
Seagrasses at Pulau Ubin near Ubin Jetty
I also had a closer look at the magnificent Perepat that grows right next to Ubin Jetty.
Perepat (Sonneratia alba) at Ubin Jetty
Rock pools under the shade of the Perepat tree next to Ubin Jetty.
Perepat (Sonneratia alba) at Ubin Jetty
All too soon, it's sunset and the tide turns.
Pulau Ubin Jetty at sunset


Photos by others on the trip







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