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Cyrene
Reefs
coral reefs, seagrass meadows, sandy shores.
Uniquely
Singapore! Cyrene's living reefs and lush seagrass meadows are
just minutes from the mainland. More about our
city reefs.
Special habitats on Cyrene
Cyrene has stunning seagrass meadows! Lush and vast, the meadows
here are home to all but two of the seagrass species found in Singapore.
As a result, Cyrene Reef is one of the primary sites monitored by
TeamSeagrass.
The seagrasses are full of marinelife. In particular, Cyrene is
rich in echinoderms: a group that includes sea stars, sea cucumbers,
sea urchins, sand dollars and feather stars. In this respect, Cyrene
is very much like a Chek Jawa of the South!
Among the spectacular sea stars is the amazing Pentaceraster
mammilatus, a new record for Singapore! It was previously known
only from the western Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. It has not been
sighted on any of our other shores. More about the
discovery of this star.
Cyrene is also home to abundant Knobbly sea stars (Protoreaster
nodosus). This large cartoon-like sea star is listed among Singapore's
threatened animals. Studies show that Cyrene is probably the only
reef in Singapore whre juvenile Knobblies are commonly seen. In
fact, Cyrene may be home to "the only sustainable population
of Knobbly sea stars" (from the Star
Tracker project).
Cyrene also has fabulous living reefs! In one survey reported in
1991, Cyrene Reefs was found to have "the highest diversity of hard
corals, with 28 genera covering 48.06% of the transect". (from Hsu,
L.H.L. and Chou, L.M. 1991. Assessment of reef resources at sites
identified for artificial reef establishment in Singapore. abstract
on the Food and Agriculture Organisation FAO
website)
Cyrene Reef also has stunning sandy shores alive with common sea
stars and sand dollars!
A reef that's in the way?
Made up three submerged reef flats: Terumbu Pandan, Pandan Beacon
and South Cyrene Beacon, Cyrene Reef is ringed by petrochemical
plants on Jurong Island and Pulau Bukom. It is also right next to
the container terminals on the mainland.
There's a chartlet
of Cyrene Reef on the MPA website (PDF file) for a larger view
of this map.
The Reef is
also along major shipping lanes for huge container ships and other
ocean-going vessels.
"Cyrene Reef is a key maritime crossroads where east-west traffic
routes cross north-south traffic routes. In the order of five hundred
ships in excess of 5,000 DWT per day transit the waters around the
reefs" (from Cyrene
Reef Marine Traffic Study, Singapore)
Fortunately, a series of beacons that ring Cyrene Reefs prevent
collisions with the Reefs. The last major collision, as reported
on the MPA website, was on 5
Dec 08 when a ferry ran aground on the Reefs.
Cyrene in Greek mythology
Various versions of Greek mythology describe Cyrene as an 'extraordinarily
beautiful' woman descended from a river god and a nymph. She had
a reputation as a huntress who guarded her father's herds from predators
and was adept with javelin and sword. Apollo spied her wrestling
a lion alone and bare-handed, and was so impressed that he carried
her off and later founded a city in Libya and named it after her.
Cyrene is said to have borne one son, who grew up to invent beekeeping.
The future of Cyrene?
Let's hope the Reef takes on the indomitable spirit of its namesake
warrior woman, and fights bare-handed with the Lion to stay alive.
You
CAN make a difference for Cyrene Reef!
Join the Cyrene Carnival, a blog carnival to celebrate this reef.
Even if you've never visited, you can make a comment or post a blog
entry about it. More about the carnival on the leafmonkey
blog.
Join
the facebook group "I want to go to Cyrene Reef!".
A blogging contest has been launched and winners can join the working
team to visit Cyrene! NO DIVING involved as we visit at low tide.
But landing and departure is amphibious
(no jetty). More details about the blogging contest on the leafmonkey
blog.
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