{"id":99,"date":"2011-10-07T13:47:28","date_gmt":"2011-10-07T13:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wsa.seagrassonline.org\/blog\/?p=99"},"modified":"2011-10-07T14:09:30","modified_gmt":"2011-10-07T14:09:30","slug":"notes-from-the-field-cyrene-reef-singapore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wsa.seagrassonline.org\/blog\/archives\/99","title":{"rendered":"Notes from the field: Cyrene Reef, Singapore"},"content":{"rendered":"
Every fortnight we feature a seagrass meadow from around the world. This week, Ria Tan takes us on a tour of Cyrene Reef in Singapore. Ria is an avid naturalist and runs the wildsingapore<\/a> webpage. In addition to hanging out in seagrass meadows, she enjoys exploring new intertidal reefs and has recently taken to trudging around in mangroves.
\n<\/em><\/h5>\n

————————<\/p>\n

People normally assume that the best seagrass meadows are found in shallow, sheltered, clear waters far away from human impact and industry. That’s not the case in Singapore, a small island nation sitting at the tip of the Malayan Peninsular. One of Singapore’s best seagrass meadows is surrounded by massive petrochemical industries, a world class container terminal and major shipping lanes in one of the world’s busiest ports. Cyrene Reef is a 1km by 500m submerged reef with astonishing marine biodiversity!<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/wildsingapore\/3722430121\/<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3496\/3722430121_a0440b9486.jpg<\/a>
\n\"3722430121_a0440b9486.jpg\"<\/p>\n

On one side of the Triangle is Pulau Bukom, the site of Singapore’s first oil refinery, set up in 1961 by Shell. Today, the 500,000 barrels-per-day Bukom Refinery<\/a> is the largest Shell refinery in the world, in terms of crude distillation capacity. On another side of the Triangle are the massive heavy industries on Jurong Island encompassing a wide variety of installations<\/a>. Some industrial activities that can potentially impact marine life include flaring<\/a>. Developed in 1974, the Pasir Panjang Container Terminal is the largest of Singapore’s four terminals. Together, the terminals handle about one-fifth of the world’s total container transhipment. Cyrene is at a key maritime crossroads where east-west traffic routes cross north-south traffic routes. About five hundred ships in excess of 5,000 DWT per day transit the waters around the Reefs.
\n\"industrialtriangle.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Despite it’s location in the middle of this ‘Industrial Triangle’<\/a>, Cyrene Reef is home to vast meadows with 7 seagrass species! Long ribbons of Enhalus acoroides<\/em> are particularly spectacular when in bloom!
\nhttp:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/wildsingapore\/2291422760\/<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3155\/2291422760_2176cd0f2f.jpg<\/a>
\n\"2291422760_2176cd0f2f.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Cymodocea serrulata<\/em> covers large areas of Cyrene Reef. These seagrass meadows are home to large numbers of Knobbly sea stars (Protoreaster nodosus<\/em>). A study of these sea stars found that the presence of juveniles, subadults and adults, which indicates a healthy level of recruitment at Cyrene Reef. And that Cyrene Reef may be the only sustainable population of knobbly seastars left in Singapore<\/a> today.
\nhttp:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/wildsingapore\/2884908620\/<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3045\/2884908620_34e5e2cebc.jpg<\/a>
\n\"2884908620_34e5e2cebc.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Cyrene is one of the few locations in Singapore where Syringodium isoetifolium<\/em> is abundant. Other seagrass species on Cyrene include Cymodocea rotundata, Thalassia hemprichii, Halodule uninervis <\/em>and Halophila ovalis<\/em>.
\nhttp:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/wildsingapore\/4893420536\/<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4097\/4893420536_3b8d972bbf.jpg<\/a>
\n\"4893420536_3b8d972bbf.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Besides massive industries, frequent dredging also takes place near Cyrene Reef. Meanwhile, further reclamation is being considered<\/a> at nearby Jurong Island. Just last week, a large fire broke out<\/a> at the Shell refinery on Pulau Bukom close to Cyrene Reef. The fire raged for 30 hours before it was put out. It remains to be seen whether this massive industrial accident has impacted marine life on Cyrene Reef.
\nhttp:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/wildsingapore\/5972221362\/<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6142\/5972221362_9a774c9540.jpg<\/a>
\n\"5972221362_9a774c9540.jpg\"
\nCyrene Reef is one of the major sites monitored by the volunteers of TeamSeagrass, a collaboration with the National Parks Board<\/a>
\n(NParks) and international Seagrass-Watch<\/a>, the largest scientific,non-destructive, seagrass assessment and monitoring program in the world. TeamSeagrass includes about 100 volunteers from all walks of life who have been monitoring Singapore’s meadows since 2007. The data they collect is submitted to NParks for a better understanding and management of Singapore’s seagrasses and shores, and to Seagrass-Watch thus contributing to global understanding of the world’s seagrasses.
\nhttp:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/wildsingapore\/3129983657\/<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3231\/3129983657_33f671fb27.jpg<\/a>
\n\"3129983657_33f671fb27.jpg\"
\nTeamSeagrass also gives ordinary people the opportunity to see first hand, some of Singapore’s best shores. Volunteers also have the satisfaction of making a difference for Singapore’s marine biodiversity.<\/p>\n

Besides monitoring, TeamSeagrass volunteers also participate in other outreach efforts such as public exhibitions and in giving talks. TeamSeagrass also has a blog<\/a> and facebook page<\/a> for online outreach. This is one of the posters of seagrasses on Cyrene used in TeamSeagrass public exhibitions.
\nhttp:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/wildsingapore\/2337022294\/<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3031\/2337022294_a370068630.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n

\"2337022294_a370068630.jpg\"<\/div>\n

There is also an effort by a small team of volunteers to raise awareness of Cyrene Reef<\/a>. The focus currently is to bring decision makers and selected corporations to visit the Reef and see it for themselves. Thus far, visits have been arranged for the Urban Redevelopment Authority, NParks and JTC (which manages Jurong Island).<\/p>\n

Hopefully, these and other efforts to document and share Cyrene’s treasures will help protect this miraculous reef in the middle of an Industrial Triangle!<\/p>\n

Find out more about Cyrene Reef and Singapore’s seagrasses at these sites
\nTeamSeagrass http:\/\/teamseagrass.blogspot.com\/<\/a>
\nCyrene Reef Exposed http:\/\/cyrenereef.blogspot.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every fortnight we feature a seagrass meadow from around the world. This week, Ria Tan takes us on a tour of Cyrene Reef in Singapore. Ria is an avid naturalist and runs the wildsingapore webpage. In addition to hanging out in seagrass meadows, she enjoys exploring new intertidal reefs and has recently taken to trudging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[5,9],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nftf","tag-notes-from-the-field","tag-se-asia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Cwsq-1B","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":281,"url":"https:\/\/wsa.seagrassonline.org\/blog\/archives\/281","url_meta":{"origin":99,"position":0},"title":"Notes from the Field: Turks & Caicos Islands","author":"Siti","date":"1 June, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Every so often (but only as often as we receive contributions) we feature a seagrass meadow from around the world. This week, Richard (RJ) Lilley reports from South Caicos is the Turks and Caicos Islands. He is a PhD student at the interdisciplinary Sustainable Places Research Institute at Cardiff University.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Notes from the field"","block_context":{"text":"Notes from the field","link":"https:\/\/wsa.seagrassonline.org\/blog\/archives\/category\/nftf"},"img":{"alt_text":"RJ_caicos1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wsa.seagrassonline.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/RJ_caicos1-300x203.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":170,"url":"https:\/\/wsa.seagrassonline.org\/blog\/archives\/170","url_meta":{"origin":99,"position":1},"title":"Notes from the field: Akumal Bay, Mexico.","author":"Siti","date":"13 February, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Every fortnight we feature a seagrass meadow from around the world. This week, Elizabeth \u2018Z\u2019 Lacey writes about Akumal Bay, an ecosystem in the Caribbean off the coast of Mexico. Z is finishing her Ph.D. at Florida International University in Miami, Florida. --------------------------------------- Photos and text by Z Lacey I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Notes from the field"","block_context":{"text":"Notes from the field","link":"https:\/\/wsa.seagrassonline.org\/blog\/archives\/category\/nftf"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wsa.seagrassonline.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Fig-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":125,"url":"https:\/\/wsa.seagrassonline.org\/blog\/archives\/125","url_meta":{"origin":99,"position":2},"title":"Notes from the Field: Tinggi Island, Peninsular Malaysia","author":"Siti","date":"18 January, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Every fortnight we feature a seagrass meadow from around the world. This week, Jillian Ooi writes about Pulau Tinggi, an island off the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Jillian has just recently completed her PhD at the University of Western Australia in Perth and is now based at the University\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Notes from the field"","block_context":{"text":"Notes from the field","link":"https:\/\/wsa.seagrassonline.org\/blog\/archives\/category\/nftf"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wsa.seagrassonline.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Tinggi-7.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":304,"url":"https:\/\/wsa.seagrassonline.org\/blog\/archives\/304","url_meta":{"origin":99,"position":3},"title":"Notes from the field: Samos, Greece","author":"Siti","date":"2 January, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Every so often we feature a seagrass meadow from around the world. This week, Richard \u201cRJ\u201d Lilley reports from Samos, a Greek Island in the North Aegean. He is a PhD student at the interdisciplinary Sustainable Places Research Institute at Cardiff University and is exploring seagrass links to food security.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Notes from the field"","block_context":{"text":"Notes from the field","link":"https:\/\/wsa.seagrassonline.org\/blog\/archives\/category\/nftf"},"img":{"alt_text":"RJ_Greece1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wsa.seagrassonline.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/RJ_Greece1-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":225,"url":"https:\/\/wsa.seagrassonline.org\/blog\/archives\/225","url_meta":{"origin":99,"position":4},"title":"“Seagrass meadows in a globally changing environment” WSA Special Issue in Marine Pollution Bulletin","author":"Siti","date":"17 September, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear Members We would like to invite all members of the World Seagrass Association to submit articles for a WSA special issue of the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin titled \u201cSeagrass meadows in a globally changing environment\u201d. 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