100626 Cyrene reef

Cyrene reef is a very special place in our southern waters, fill with an amazing collection of wildlife despite being in the middle of the 'Industrial Triangle'. Sadly, even this haven of biodiversity is fast succumbing to the ravages of environmental changes that threaten the lives of its inhabitants, the most apparent of the results being coral bleaching.

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Purple cucumarid cucumber, found on the sandbar area.










Kok Sheng, on his hunt for Pentaceraster, found these strange sea stars. He also found some other sea stars :

Anthenea aspera.


Culcita novaeguineae



As usual, the knobblies were doing well :

Protoreaster nodosus with blue knobs.


A rather seasoned knobbly, more typical of Beting Bronok than cyrene.


No idea what anemone this is.


Orange fan clam.


Geraldine found this Amphiprion ocellaris gamely posing for her camera a little distance from its anemone (Stichodactyla gigantea).


Eriphia ferox. Terumbu Pandan has a fairly large population of these crabs.




A new nudibranch (Dendrodoris nigra?) found by Kok Sheng.


Tiny brittlestar (Ophiurida) in soft coral (Nephtheidae).


Tridacna squamosa. Tagged by Mei Lin on an earlier trip.




Bornella sp..




It swam away when it got too uncomfortable with the attention it was getting.



Some of the Anthozoa luminesce under UV light :

Zoanthids.


Phymanthus.




Stichodactyla haddoni.


Macrodactyla doreensis.


Bleached Anthozoa. I did not see any healthy soft coral and the majority of the hard coral were bleached :

Nephtheidae.




Bleached boulder favid.


Pink boulder favid.


Bleached Pocillopora.








Leathery coral (Alcyoniidae), both large and small showed extensive bleaching.