Walking Singapore's Intertidal Zone at Changi Beach Park

Walking Singapore’s Intertidal Zone at Changi Beach Park

travelertina

12:07:53 July 10, 2021

Asia,Singapore

If you want to see some of Singapore’s wonderful sea creatures without diving under the water, your best bet is to head over to Changi Beach Park just around low tide for an intertidal zone adventure.

View of Changi Beach Park at low tide in Singapore, with exposed mudflats and the sea in the distance under blue sky with puffy white clouds

IMPORTANT: Do not pick up, relocate, or place intertidal wildlife in Tupperware or other containers.

What’s the Intertidal Zone?

Technically, any shore area between the low and high tide marks is considered the tidal zone — so that includes the great flat morass of seaweed, sand, and water above. Changi Beach Park 6 is a particularly great place to explore the intertidal zone because there’s an unusually long, flat stretch of barely-submerged beach at low tide (you’ll find more tips at the bottom of this post).

There’s so much to see here if you don’t mind getting your hands and feet wet (but please don’t take any animals home or touch them unless you know it’s safe). Let’s take a look at what I found on two recent visits.

Sea Cucumbers

Close-up of a brightly colored pink warty sea cucumber resting on wet sand and spitting water during low tide in Singapore’s intertidal zone.

Most people wouldn’t say that sea cucumbers are very sexy, but I love that they come in such a wide variety of shapes and colors. And they’re all over the place! The ones below include pink warty, sea apple, thorny, orange, and smooth varieties.

Orange-spotted purple sea apple sea cucumber, lying half-submerged in the water with sea plants at Changi Beach in Singapore

Pale brown, blob-like smooth sea cucumber resting on dense green seaweed in the intertidal zone at Changi Beach, Singapore.

If you’re patient, you may even see them put their feeding tentacles out:

Orange-spotted, yellow-striped lavender sea apple sea cucumber with orange tentacles extended, in the water with green marine plants at Changi beach on a Singapore low tide walk

Bright pink thorny sea cucumber alongside with tentacles extended, in the water amidst green and brown seaweed at Changi Beach, Singapore.

Watching a sea cucumber move around can be a truly wonderful (or eerie, or gross, depending on your perspective) experience.

Egg Casings

Translucent white egg casing of a volute shell attached to a rock on the sandy shore, seen during a marine intertidal walk at Changi Beach in Singapore

Again, not usually considered a sexy category, but eggs and the things that hold them can be pretty amazing. Take the structure above, which is what the volute shell uses to house its eggs. Then there’s this creation …

Unbroken sand collar, the egg case of a moon snail, seen at low tide in the sand on Changi Beach in Singapore

… which the moon snail makes as a combination of mucus, sand, and teeny tiny eggs. One collar can contain thousands of eggs.

Wavy-edged underside of a moon snail sand collar cracked on the shore at Changi Beach, during a low tide walk in Singapore

The tiny purple and beige fringes below are the egg capsules of the elegant drill shell:

Rock covered with diverse pink, green, and brown marine life, including seaweed, sponges, and egg capsules, in an intertidal zone at Changi Beach, Singapore

Sea Anemones, Sea Pens, and Jellyfish

Rather amazingly, sea pens (above), anemones, and jellyfish are related to each other (they’re all members of phylum cnidaria). Sean pens usually stick upright in the sand, but you might find them lying flat in the intertidal zone.

White, brush-shaped sea pen on the sandy intertidal shore at Changi Beach, Singapore.

If you look closely, you may find tiny porcelain crabs living within their polyp leaves:

Underside of a white, brush-shaped sea pen with tiny porcelain crabs on the stalk, in the sand on a intertidal walk at Changi Beach, Singapore.

You might also encounter jellyfish as part of an intertidal walk, though finding a live one isn’t especially common. We were lucky to see this mangrove jellyfish, which had just been freed from a fisherman’s net:

Translucent mangrove jellyfish with reddish-brown dots, encountered during a low tide walk at Changi Beach, Singapore, floating gently among algae and sand.

There are plenty of anemones at low tide — watch your step — including carpet anemones and what I think is a common cerianthid.

Colorful carpet anemone with a pale orange center and textured tentacles, spotted on an intertidal walk at Changi Beach in Singapore.

Pale sea anemone with flowing tentacles and reddish center, spotted during an intertidal walk at Changi Beach, Singapore.

Sea Stars, Sand Dollars, & Sea Urchins

Sea stars, sand dollars, and sea urchins are all echinoderms (as are sea cucumbers), generally known for their five-point radial symmetry. Here’s a sweetly (and aptly) named chocolate chip sea star.

Chocolate chip sea star lying in the sand during a Changi Beach intertidal walk in Singapore

If you look very closely, you may also find brittle stars. Their legs seem to break off all the time (don’t worry — they grow back).

Bristled brittle star with long, slender arms; one arm is broken off, found on the sandy seabed during an intertidal walk at Changi Beach in Singapore.

You may find sea urchin shells with a few legs still attached, or you may find just the husks of their bodies:

Pale green sea urchin shell with a central hole, photographed during a low tide intertidal walk at Changi Beach in Singapore

Sand dollars — both alive and not so — are plentiful at low tide:

Large dark sand dollar with a radiating starburst pattern surrounded by seaweed, discovered during low tide at Changi Beach, Singapore.

Sea Squirts

Chunky peach-colored sea squirt with bulbous lobes nestled among seagrass during an intertidal walk at Changi Beach, Singapore.

Believe it or not, these are our closest invertebrate relatives — apparently, we share similar hearts and nervous systems (and 80% of our genes). Sea squirts are a pretty common sighting along the shores, often attached to sponges.

Trio of orange sea squirts clustered on seaweed at Changi Beach during low tide in Singapore

Crabs & Hermit Crabs

Small dead blue swimmer swimming crab perched on an arm, with yellow legs and red-tipped claws, seen during a low tide walk at Changi Beach in Singapore

I’ll repeat my earlier note: you shouldn’t pick up wildlife, but these crabs were already dead. Crabs move quickly, so unless you’re an excellent photographer, you’re most likely to find the shells of recently deceased critters. The flower moon crab is particularly attractive:

Close-up of the underside of a a tiny dead white flower moon crab with yellow legs held in fingers at Changi Beach on an intertidal walk in Singapore.

It’s much easier to find (and hold) live hermit crabs. Not true crabs (but related, albeit somewhat distantly), hermit crabs move into all different kinds of shells for housing:

Hermit crab extended out of an orange conch shell, spotted at low tide during a walk at Changi Beach, Singapore

Small hermit crab tucked inside a glossy peach-toned shell, found during an intertidal walk at Changi Beach in Singapore.

We also saw a large cluster of them being very active and wondered what was going on.

Snails & Shells

Fan clam shell half-buried in wet sand, seen during an intertidal walk at Changi Beach in Singapore, its brown striations and fine sediment clearly visible

There are lots of shells on the beaches of Singapore, the largest of which generally include mussels and a wide variety of clams (that’s a fan clam above).

Cluster of large, ridged fan-shaped shells attached to rock and seaweed, spotted during a low tide walk at Changi Beach in Singapore.

Brightly colored pink warty sea cucumber lying atop to a shiny nacreous shell lying on wet sand, seen during a low tide walk at Changi Beach in Singapore.

If you’re lucky, you may also find a stunning noble volute snail.

Noble volute snail at Changi Beach Park, with its patterned brown-and-peach shell resting in in low water in the intertidal zone

Sea Slugs

Onch slug at Changi Beach Park blending into a rocky intertidal surface with algae and barnacles, showing its mottled textured body

Look very carefully along the wall by the river outlet, and you might spot an onch slug. Often mistaken for limpets, onch slugs are actually tiny, air-breathing sea slugs that are masters of camouflage.

Sponges

Beige branching sponge with a rough honeycomb texture, partially covered in green seaweed on wet sand, found at low tide at Changi Beach in Singapore.

Sponges are all over the place along the intertidal zone, sometimes floating freely and sometimes attached to rock formations.

Tubular green sponge with numerous openings, growing along an orange and brown rock wall during an intertidal exploration at Changi Beach in Singapore.

Dark purple and black porous marine sponge patches encrusting a rocky surface, spotted during a low tide walk at Changi Beach, Singapore.

Look closely — sponges often support other life forms, including worms, sea squirts, and brittle stars.

Mystery Blobs

Bulbous pink and beige ascidian colony with a gelatinous base, resembling a cluster of knobs or tunicates, seen during a low tide walk at Changi Beach in Singapore.

What is this? A blob is obviously not the name of any kind of intertidal species — it is just something that neither Google nor I have been able to identify. If anyone knows what these things are, could you please leave a comment?

Unusual intertidal marine growth resembling a cluster of beige bubble-like nodules, partially entangled with green seaweed on wet sand at Changi Beach in Singapore

How To Plan Your Intertidal Walk

Where to go: Changi Beach Park 6 is absolutely your best option. You can also try Changi Beach Park 7, Pasir Ris Beach Park, Coney Island, or St. John’s Island, though you won’t see as much at any of these.
When to go: The best time to head out is shortly before low tide (there’s better visibility as the tide is going out than when it’s coming in). If you’re in Singapore, check this tide table for the best timings. Keep an eye out for the lowest tides — that’s when you’ll see the most.
What to bring: Shoes with sturdy bottoms (so you don’t have your foot punctured by a stonefish), mosquito repellant (Changi Beach Park has some monster mozzies), a flashlight (if you’re doing an early morning or evening walk), a plastic bag (to keep your phone dry), sunblock, and a water bottle.
What to do: Wander, look, prepare to get wet. If you touch, do so very gently — most of these are still living creatures.
Important: Don’t pick up wildlife, move it, or place it in containers; leave everything exactly where you find it.
Who to go with: You can walk around on your own, of course, but if you want to see and learn a whole lot more, I would suggest that you go with a guide. I took my first trip with Untamed Paths, but I’m hesitant to recommend them, since their tours involve handling wildlife along the way
Identifying animals: The wildsingapore website is a great help in trying to figure out what you’ve seen.

Want to See More Wildlife Diversity?

Venture out on a wild intertidal walk at Singapore’s Pulau Hantu.
Check out my blog posts on giant clams, clownfish, and creatures you might see night snorkeling in Indonesia.
Enjoy the coastal wildlife of the Caribbean island of Bonaire.

Traveler Tina