Ascidians collected during the 2013 Singapore Strait International Marine Biodiversity Workshop

During the 2013 Singapore Strait International Marine Biodiversity Workshop, hundreds of ascidians were collected along with numerous other marine phyla. Collections were made intertidally as well as subtidally by snorkel, SCUBA, trawling and dredging. While many ascidian specimens remain unidentified, 14 aplousobranchs, nine phlebobranchs and 17 stolidobranchs have been identified; a surprising 50% of these comprise 20 new records for Singapore. An additional new record of the phlebobranch Perophora namei collected from the same area in 2014 and 2015 is included here. Of the 21 new records, Aplidium cf. grisiatum, Distaplia regina, Euherdmania cf. digitata, Cnemidocarpa irene, Monandrocarpa monotestis and Polyandrocarpa rollandi are also first records for the entire South China Sea region.

Small uptick in South-east Asia piracy is likely

Significance More than one-third of reported incidents occurred in the Singapore Strait, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. A key factor in this rise in regional maritime crime was the pandemic-related economic downturn. Impacts A rising problem of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing by Chinese vessels will strain regional coast guards. Racketeers will continue to tempt Rohingya refugees in Bangladeshi camps to attempt perilous sea voyages to South-east Asian states. Shipping companies will suffer increasing financial losses from cyberattacks against shore-based operations and vessels at sea.

South-east Asia will contain enduring piracy threat

Subject Piracy attacks in South-east Asia. Significance An incident of kidnapping for ransom in the Sulu Sea last week and a series of attacks on shipping in the Singapore Strait last month have refocused attention on the persistent problem of piracy in South-east Asia. The safe passage of shipping through the region’s waterways is crucial to global trade. Impacts South-east Asian states will respond to piracy outside the framework of ASEAN. The United States and Japan will take the lead in providing capacity-building support for regional coast guards and navies. Piracy in the region is unlikely to become conflated with the South China Sea dispute.

COLLISION PREVENTION IN SINGAPORE STRAIT BY USING TIMED PETRI NET

The problem of maritime traffic in Singapore Strait is traffic density, also the probability of collision, which is increased beside the existing Vessel Traffic System (VTS). The paper discusses the synthesis early warning system, or automatic crossing supervisor for Singapore Strait by using the Timed Petri Nets (TPN). Authors proposes dividing the strait in zones, so called crossings, where routes are crossing and in which the number of ships must be limited. The maximum number of vessels in period of time of the highest traffic density through the crossings are determined. Derived constraints are used for synthesis of crossing supervisor. The authors uses Petri nets to make model Singapore Strait, and use P-invariant method to syntheses crossing supervisor, which limits the number of ships in all critical crossings. Finally, the author verified derived supervisor by using Visual Object Net ++ programme for computer simulation. With the aid of Transas nautical simulator, the traffic in the strait is analysed.

Temporal and spatial dynamics of Bacteria, Archaea and protists in equatorial coastal waters

Singapore, an equatorial island in South East Asia, is influenced by a bi-annual reversal of wind directions which defines two monsoon seasons. We characterized the dynamics of the microbial communities of Singapore coastal waters by collecting monthly samples between February 2017 and July 2018 at four sites located across two straits with different trophic status, and sequencing the V6-V8 region of the small sub-unit ribosomal RNA gene (rRNA gene) of Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukaryota. Johor Strait, which is subjected to wider environmental fluctuations from anthropogenic activities, presented a higher abundance of copiotrophic microbes, including Cellvibrionales and Rhodobacterales. The mesotrophic Singapore Strait, where the seasonal variability is caused by changes in the oceanographic conditions, harboured a higher proportion of typically marine microbe groups such as Synechococcales, Nitrosupumilales, SAR11, SAR86, Marine Group II Archaea and Radiolaria. In addition, we observed seasonal variability of the microbial communities in the Singapore Strait, which was possibly influenced by the alternating monsoon regime, while no seasonal pattern was detected in the Johor Strait.

Draft Genome Sequence of Mycolicibacterium sp. Strain 018/SC-01/001, Isolated from the Marine Sponge Iotrochota sp.

Here, we report the draft genome sequence of a marine bacterium, Mycolicibacterium sp. strain 018/SC-01/001, isolated from the marine sponge Iotrochota sp. collected from the Singapore Strait. The analysis of the bacterial genome using the bioinformatics tool antiSMASH 4.0.2 revealed the presence of a number of unique natural product biosynthetic pathways.

Xenosinelobus balanocolus, a new tanaidid genus and species (Crustacea: Peracarida: Tanaidacea) from barnacles on intertidal rocky shores and seawalls in the Singapore Strait

This study describes a new genus and new species of Tanaidacea that was collected from inside the tests of dead Tetraclita barnacles in Singapore. Xenosinelobus n. gen. is most similar to Sinelobus but can be distinguished by the (1) unusually short antennal fifth article, (2) tooth-like lacinia mobilis on right mandible, (3) long terminal seta on epignath, (4) plumose inner seta near dactylus insertion on cheliped propodus, (5) spiniform seta on pereopod 1 coxa, (6) presence of setae on inner margins of pereopod 1 propodus and dactylus, (7) claw-like terminal articles on pereopods 2 and 3, (8) row of setulose and flattened denticulate setae along distal margin of pereopod 6 propodus, (9) dorsal seta on claws of pereopods 4–6, (10) complete row of dorso-transverse setae on pleonites 1 and 2, (11) one seta on pleopod basis outer margin, (12) two or three setae on pleopod endopod inner margin and (13) three-articled uropod with final article 1.6 times as long as preceding article. A new diagnosis and key to genera is provided for the subfamily Sinelobinae.