Assemblages and diversity of fishes in Singapore's marinas

Singapore's coastal environment has been extensively transformed by numerous development projects since the 1960s. However, fish diversity remains relatively high despite the extent of anthropogenic modifications to these environments. The diversity and abundance of fishes supported by recreational marinas in Singapore was examined in this study. Custom-made fish traps were deployed at ONE degrees 15 Marina Club (OMC), Marina at Keppel Bay (MKB) and Raffles Marina (RM). A total of 49 species from 31 families were documented. The average number of fishes caught and the Margalef Diversity index were highest in RM while MKB had the highest evenness and Shannon index. Raffles Marina harbored many estuarine species such as Arius oetik and Etroplus suratensis, while reef-associated species such as chaetodontids and pomacentrids inhabited MKB and OMC. Our findings supplemented ichthyological surveys carried out from 2004 to 2014, which when combined, generated an updated list of over 105 species from 48 families inhabiting recreational marinas in Singapore. The results indicate that marinas in Singapore can support and sustain diverse fish assemblages, and can potentially play important roles for marine conservation in human-modified coastal areas.