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 BMT Maritime Consultants project list: 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.

Does it make sense to conserve Cyrene Reef? Here's some thoughts.

Links

• Cyrene Reef Exposed a blog dedicated to Cyrene Reef
  
• Cyrene Reef facebook page dedicated to Cyrene Reef
• TeamSeagrass monitoring seagrasses including those on Cyrene
  
• Star Trackers studying Knobbly sea stars on Cyrene and elsewhere
• Cyrene Reef mapping effort by Dr Dr. D. Kumaran Raju, see also the wild shores of singapore blog.
  

Cyrene in public exhibitions

• Cyrene Reef exhibition at the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research in Aug 08.
• Cyrene Reef at Reef Celebrations with an adopt a Cyrene Reef Star event on 9 Aug 08.
• Cyrene Reef was featured at the Naked Hermit Crabs booth at EnviroFest 08 on 28 Jun 08.
• Naked Hermit Crab photo exhibition featuring our shores at RE-Live@Atrirum 5-11 Jun 08 organised by Eco-Singapore.
  

Cyrene in public talks

• "Wishing upon a Star" a talk about the stars of Cyrene by the Star Trackers at Reef Celebrations on 9 Aug 08. See also video of the talk.
• Cyrene at Reel Revolution on 12 Jul 08 at the Substation: introducing Cyrene and our shores to young film-makers.
• "The Naked Truth: See our shores in a different light" on 7 Jun 08 at the National Library Victoria St as part of World Environment Day celebrations by the Naked Hermit Crabs and Transitions Optical.
• "Secret Shores of Singapore" on 3 May 08 at the Botanic Gardens as part of NParks celebration of Earth Day and World Biodiversity Day.

General information

• Cyrene Reef updates field trips, coastal works and other news from the wild shores of singapore blog.
• Cyrene Reef: a special reef in Singapore's port on the singapore celebrates our reefs blog
• Blog entries about Cyrene from various blogs on the wildsingapore google reader
• Photos of intertidal Cyrene Reef on wildsingapore flickr and budak flickr
• Photos of diving at Cyrene Reef on pocillopora flickr
• Cyrene Reef some facts on the Coral Reefs of Singapore website
• Cyrene Reef one of the coral reef habitats in Singapore listed in the Guide to Marine Fishes of Singapore

More links

• More about Singapore's City Reefs
• Cyrene Reef Marine Traffic Study, Singapore on the BMT Marine Consultants website.
  

• Cyrene Reef featured in Nature Watch, a post on the wild shores of singapore blog.
• Blue Plan to save Singapore's biodiversity-rich coral reefs ready Conservationists urge Govt to step in to save what's left
  Grace Chua, Straits Times 24 Apr 09;
• Ordinary Singaporeans lead the green charge
  Shobana Kesava, Straits Times 16 Aug 08;
• Sea stars of Cyrene Reef in the news
  We all have a name and IC!
  Koh Soo May, My Paper 11 Aug 08
• Singapore's neglected heritage
  Liana Tang, Straits Times 23 Jun 08
• A new star for Singapore: discovery of sea star
  Discovery of large five-rayed sea star adds to marine biodiversity here David J.W. Lane , Robin Ngiam & Ivan Tan, Straits Times 3 May 08
  

• Wildfact sheets introduction to common marine life in Singapore.
• Tan, Leo W. H. & Ng, Peter K. L., 1988. A Guide to Seashore Life. The Singapore Science Centre, Singapore. 160 pp.
• Tan, Ria and Loh Tse-Lynn, 2004. Guidesheet to the Amazing Marine Life of the Southern Shores of Singapore.
  
• Tan, Ria and Alan Yeo, 2003. Chek Jawa Guidebook. Simply Green. 219p