A thumb-size crab that has only six legs, another that shares a burrow with a worm and a sea anemone that looks as if it wears lipstick - these denizens of Singapore’s seas could be completely new to science.
The discoveries are part of a five-year Comprehensive Marine Biodiversity Survey started in 2010, led by the National Parks Board (NParks).
And researchers trawling Singapore for its first marine life census are hoping to find even more as the five-year Comprehensive Marine Biodiversity Survey is just at its halfway mark.
This week, they plan to dredge Singapore’s deepest waters, up to 200m deep.
So far, some 30,000 specimens have been collected in the survey by the National Parks Board (NParks) and National University of Singapore (NUS). Among them are at least 16 species possibly new to science.
“The nicer thing than finding new species is finding old friends,” said Professor Peter Ng, director of NUS’ Tropical Marine Science Institute.
For instance, a brightly patterned zebra crab not seen since the 1960s turned up last year at the islands south of Singapore.
Yesterday, Senior Minister of State for National Development Tan Chuan-Jin dropped in on St John’s Island, where the survey’s southern-islands expedition is currently under way till June 7.
Mr Tan, who is Acting Manpower Minister, also visited a reef off Pulau Tekukor, a former ammunition dump between Sentosa and St John’s Island. He went scuba diving with survey staff to see sea fans and sponges.
The southern expedition is more challenging than the previous one to Singapore’s northern seas and shores last October, said Prof Ng. The area surveyed this year, which spans from Jurong to Changi, is at least three times bigger than the northern region, and includes busy shipping lanes. Each day, teams venture out as early as 4am to reefs exposed during low tide, collecting octopuses, leatherjacket fish, sea stars, anemones and others.
Will Singapore ever have a gazetted marine reserve? That is a complex issue, Prof Ng said. “I would say we are on the road towards a reserve. It depends a lot on the sentiments of the people.” While the survey, which began in December 2010, will identify biodiversity hot spots that merit protection, he added, “once you set a reserve… we cannot backtrack after that”.
NParks’ National Biodiversity Centre director Lena Chan noted there are other ways to protect biodiversity. For instance, some sea walls here are now designed to try to invite coral to grow.
The survey is running on more than $800,000 donated by companies like Shell, HSBC’s Care-for-Nature Trust, Asia Pacific Breweries and Air Liquide, as well as public funding. But another $1.5 million will be needed.
