BB Secrets

:: Amongst the shore volunteers, BB is a very special reef. Located in the northern part of Singapore, stories of how one can find sea life that are elusive and rare on mainland Singapore and the other Southern islands, would find the shores crawling and bubbling with life. Another reason why its so special is the fact that 2/3 of it has already been destroyed through reclamation works a few years back, and whatever is left, is still teeming with marine life. Goes to show how resilient nature is. BB is about 45 minutes away from Changi via boat and one can only land (an amphibious landing just like Cyrene) when the tides are favourably low. So I jumped at the opportunity to head to BB with Ria, Dr Chua and the rest of the mad-cap volunteers, at 3am on a warm Saturday morning. ::

:: Getting ready for BB. ::

:: The air was still, nary a breeze on this muggy Saturday morning. Not single star in the sky. ::

:: ...but lots of stars on the sand/silt/substrate. I didn’t realized that early in the morning but when dawn came, the shore was crawling with stars. Here we have two specimens of biscuit sea star (Goniodiscaster scaber). ::

:: Cake sea stars( Anthenea aspera) are the other kind of star easily found here on BB. I have yet to really comprehend how to id juvenile biscuit and cake sea stars. More here on wild films blog on the intricacies of sea star id. ::

:: Another special sea star, a 6-armed scaly sea star (Nepanthia belcheri) , found by Joe Lai. ::

:: What shore trip would be complete without a sighting of knobblies (Protoreaster nodosus). We found these 5 knobblies in this intriguing arrangement. ::

:: And I found a beautiful powdery gray coloured sea star. Apparently, it probably is a Craspidaster hesperus and we have never seen it intertidally before in Singapore. And as Ria pointed out, you can see tiny stars shaped spinelets on its upper surface. How cool is that! ::

:: Other echinoderms found include sea cucumbers and sea urchins. The pink thorny sea cucumber could be found relatively easy on BB. Here, you can see the feathery tentacles.::

:: As said, some creatures rare on mainland can be found in great numbers on BB. I have never seen pencil sea urchins (Prionocidaris bispinosa) before but when morning came, so many could be found amongst the coral rubble that we had to be really careful in case we stepped on them ::

:: Here we have a pair of Onyx cowries (Cypraea onyx). This cowrie is listed among the threatened animals of Singapore due to habitat loss and over-collection and is rarely seen. The paler cowrie is called the Wandering cowrie (Cypraea errones). Cowries have shiny shells cause their mantle usually covers its entire shell, thus algae and stuff wont get the chance to grow on it. In the past, cowries were used as currency due to their polished and shiny appearances. ::

:: Another unusual and elusive snail spotted was this ovulid snail. Found amongst the attractive soft coral which resembles cauliflower, these ovulid snalls have a mantle which covers their shell where it imitates the bumps and colouring of the coral polyps of their host. Its really hard to spot, where rumour has it that a local diver flew all the way to Phillipines to take a photo of this snail, only to be told that it can found here in Singapore waters. ::

:: These clumps or balls of these flowery soft corals, in pinks and cream, are rather common on BB. If you take a closer look, many tiny polps can be seen at the tips of the branches, through which this animal catches minute prey. ::

:: And I was very lucky to spot this white shrimp living amongst the branches. Apparently, usually a pair lives amongst the clumps of the soft coral, giving it a safe secure home. ::

:: Many anemones were spotted as well. According to Kok Sheng, this is a swimming anemone. ::

:: Another first for me is this rare bailer snail (Melo melo). Threatened in Singapore cause irresponsible people poach them for food, this carnivorous snail has beautiful tiger-like stripes on its foot. We spotted another one much later having a gong gong for breakfast! ::

:: A relative of the bailer snail, the nobile volute (Cymbiola nobilis) too has striking patterns on its foot. ::

:: BB has many firsts for me. Here is large anemone which has a body that is as clear as glass and has specks of gold in its tentacles and body. Its so pretty and this photo does not do it justice. It’s a piece of artwork I tell ya. ::

:: My first time seeing a sea fan (Top). And hydroids as well. That’s why we were all wearing long track pants for this delicate and innocuous looking animals causes painful stings that leaves ugly scars. ::

:: Spotted this big sea horse (Hippocampus kuda) lying limp in a shallow pool of water. The yellow one was found later on. ::

:: Some parts of BB is covered by stunning patches of sponges in blues, greens, reds and yellows. If we blew them up to the scale of buildings, they would be architectural wonders and be most appropriate for any science fiction movie. ::


:: And what trip would be complete without seeing nudibranchs. Denisoni nudibranchs seems to be in season and were having mating. Here, you can see the beauty of its electric blue spots on its body. ::


:: Talking about electric blue, its my first time seeing the stunning blue dragon nudibranch. Not just one but 5! Wow! ::



:: And Joe Lai found this lovely nudibranch (Bornella stellifer) which I have never seen before. I thought it does look like one of the nudibranchs featured in National Geographic recently. And yes, this nudibranch flees from danger like its cousin by swimming like an eel. ::


:: We can always depend on eagle eyed Chay Hoon to spot nudibranchs that are no bigger than a finger nail. This nudibranch is probably only, at best, 1.5cm long! ::



:: Another surprise find was to actually see moray eels and none of us had to get our entire body wet! I found one sticking its head out of his home while Kenerf found another one later, entirely out of water. It was very much alive and it slithered into the lagoon, probably relieved, after we snapped shots of it. ::


:: We saw quite a few octopi on relatively dry areas, probably caught unawares by the retreating tide. ::

:: Was looking at this strange looking mound of sorbet lime coloured sponge and then realized that it was attached to this grumpy orange crab with beady eyes. I shall name it Grimace! ::

:: Morning breaking over BB was postcard perfect. This is another reason why I go on these shore trips. Mornings have never looked better. I could be in Halong Bay for all you know... ::

:: 4 hours later, it was time to leave. ::

:: This is one trip that was worth waking up for. A respite from regular life, as a mindless drone, a dispensable cog in this city. Thank you Ria as always and everyone else who made this trip fascinating. ::

Ah! Who can resist the call of Cyrene...

:: Ah Cyrene. Just like its mythical namesake from Greek mythogs, where Apollo fell in love with Cyrene, daughter of Hypseus, King of Lapiths, after she wrestled with a lion who attacked her father's sheep. Apollo kidnapped her and founded a city in North Africa (now Libya). And just like he, I too have fallen under the spell of our enchanting Cyrene Reef, right the middle of The Lion City's busy shipping lane. ::

:: Cyrene reef can only be visited a few times a year, at one of the lowest spring tides and only for a few hours. Thus this morning, we mad-capped volunteers, NParks and Dr Lane were there to continue our echinoderm hunt. After the lack of interesting echinoderms on Pulau Semakau on Tuesday, today we found what we were looking for! ::



:: We departed from Singapore Yacht Club in good spirits, all of us raring to down and dirty, looking for echinoderm specimens... ::


:: As the reef is usually fully submerged most of the time, it means it doesn't have a proper landing site. Thus, we  would need to make an amphibious landing i.e get wet ::


:: The smaller boat will take us to shore ::


:: Cyrene reef is surrounded by petrochemical refineries and heavy industries on Pulau Bukom & Jurong Island ::


:: Off we go in our dinky little boat ::



:: While some of us suited up, others have already went off in different directions ::




:: Cyrene did not disappoint us. There were so many knobbly sea stars (Protoreaster nodusus) to be found. In all colours, shapes and sizes! ::


:: And common sea stars (Archester typicus) were found all over the sand dune, some of them mating. And big too ::


:: Siti and Weiling found a sea horse (Hippocampus kuda). My first living sea horse on our shores! It was a very pregnant daddy sea horse and refused to have its picture taken ::


:: A sea hare ::


:: Lush sea grass meadows. I have never seen so many species of sea grass before in Singapore, all in one area ::


:: Peacock anemones found here have the most psychedelic colours ::


:: Spotted this long-horned cowfish (Lactoria cornuta) which was utterly adorable. It was swimming around like a wound up toy when it beached itself against the sand. They are related to puffer fishes ::


:: Sea urchins are echinoderms too. Actually, there were plenty of them on Cyrene. Here is a salmacis sea urchin and its dead friend's test ::


:: Black sea urchin (it shall not be named..) with his long spikes and electric blue spots. That ball thing is not its eye which I thought it was, but instead, its the anus. (Imagine having a bulbous anus...no wonder you have spikes) ::


:: So many colony of zoanthids in the sand, all in feeding mode::


:: Lotus coloured jellyfish swam languidly in the shallows::


:: First time seeing a greenish-blue cake star (Anthenea aspera)...one of its arms have been nibbled upon ::


:: I spotted this juvenile cushion star amongst the crystalline algae with one of its limbs bitten off previously and now sporting a smaller appendage ::


:: Anemone shrimp. Usually, a male and female pair can be found living on one carpet anemone ::





:: And the reason why we came to Cyrene...to find this sea star! This is a new recording for Singapore and it was spotted for the first time previously when Team Seagrass came to Cyrene for a session of sea grass monitoring where they spotted it. Luckily, Vyna saved the day and found this as we were heading back to our landing point. This is tentatively known as the...Pentaceraster mammillatus!!!! but we prefer to call it the Evil Knobbly...as compared to its benign red/orange cousins ::


:: And of course, we all turned into star paparazzi ::


:: I didn't realised that there was a tiny brittle star on this synaptid sea cucumber until i got home ::


:: Us going wild over another star of Cyrene...this time its a red feather star or crinoid ::



:: Many coral species can be found on Cyrene. These were found near our landing point ::


:: An encounter with one of Singapore's poisonous crabs, the mosaic crab (Lophozozymus pictor). It is also one of Singapore's threatened animals ::


:: Have never seen such sponges before on our shores, with big gapping holes. I think they are the coolest thing. To think we use them to scrub our backs! ::

:: Two big fat juicy Marginated Glossodoris (Glossodoris atromarginata) nudibranchs feeding (yes, eating) on the tape sea grass. Nudibranchs means naked gills and are actually shell-less molluscs ::


:: Sea grapes. Dr Lane ate one and we all went.." EWWWW" . Sure it can be eaten, but not when its from the waters that surrounds heavy industries. Ha!::


::Lets play Caption time! What is Ria yelling at me for? ::



:: And off we go, heading back to the main boat ::

:: It was an amazing trip to Cyrene, thanks to Ria and everyone else who made it so fun and informative. And just as how Grecian Cyrene needed to wrestle the lion who attacked her sheep, our Cyrene reef is constantly under threat by the impeding doom of being blown up or reclaimed as it is right in the middle of a major shipping lane. Cyrene is also potentially at risk from chemical spills from the petrochemical plants on Pulau Bukom and Jurong Island. And with the monstorus tankers and ships that go by every day, imagine the impact of the waves and currents constantly pounding on the fragile corals and animals found on this marine habitat. ::

Find out more about Cyrene here!

Pulau Semakau: Echinoderm Hunting : Tuesday, 22 April 2008

:: Ria invited us on a trip to Pulau Semakau on Tuesday, in the wee hours of the morning, with Dr Lane, the expert in Echinoderms (sea stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers etc) to look for echinoderms on our shores. We were tasked to find uncommon echinoderms but it was the usual suspects that we found (at times, we were distracted by other things..Semakau has that effect on you)::

:: Us intrepid volunteers making our way to Semakau ::


:: Our first knobbly sea star (Protoreaster nodosus) spotted by myself. And it is rather huge ::


:: SiJie, Vyna and I were walking and we saw this fish. Its a flat head or a crocodile fish. We thought it was dead ::


:: Chanced upon this rather large flat worm ::


:: Dawn slowly approaches ::


:: Another knobbly sea star, this one found by Marcus. And right beside it was a sea cucumber which had its innards split open. We reckon that some fisherman came by and were collecting these benign creatures and this unfortunate fellow fell out. Such a bloody waste! ::


:: A mushroom coral (Heliofungia actiniformis). It is not a sea anemone::




:: Lucky for us the ominous rain clouds stayed above mainland Singapore. And those, my friends, are the petrochemical industries that make our country rich..but at what price? ::


:: Good Lord! Some moronic fisherman left his brain behind! Actually its a brain coral (Family Mussidae).::


:: Contrary to what some people think (ha!), I spotted this chunky Sandfish sea cucumber (Holothuria scabra) first, then realised that there were two mating nudibranchs on top of it. They are Chromodoris lineolata ::


:: Nearby, I spotted a polka-dotted nudibranch (Jorunna funebris) and right beside it, another pair of Chromodoris lineolata mating. Gee, at least some creatures are having wanton sex. ::


:: Hard and soft corals. Semakau is rich in coral species, as you can see ::


:: This stunning peacock anemone reminds me of its flora name sake: the french anemone ::


:: This is a type of nudibranch: the black phyllid ::


:: A synaptid sea cucumber curled around these bulbous sponges ::


:: Robin taking a shot of a sea cucumber, while a pulsating jellyfish swims by ::


:: My favourite neon pink sponges ::


:: Nope, didn't see any Nemos or shrimps under this sea anemone (Stichodactyla sp.) ::


:: A gorgeous flat worm. Looks likes its in PJs ::


:: i thought this sponges were rather interesting looking. Like 3 aliens or like an art piece that one might find at the Venice Binnale. Or like that tourist attraction in Blue Mountains, Sydney Australia, the 3 Sisters::

:: After a long morning, we took the fast craft back to mainland and it was time for Vyna, Helen and myself to open the Team Seagrass booth at Singapore Polytechnic's G-pop event, in celebration of Earth Day! ::


:: Helen getting SOME interest from someone .... ::


:: ...and girls from Hwa Chong Junior Collage, with our cool new stickers, designed by Siti.::



:: Our booth was by far the most informative, fun and exciting one at the event. We had a baby dugong (whom I named Bruce) on loan from the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity, thanks to Sijie .(Okay, I am biased)::


:: A close up of poor baby bruce. Baby Bruce was found inside his mother, whom died either from a fish net strangulation or was bludgeoned to death by boat propellers. Yes, she was found on Pulau Ubin ::

:: Tomorrow we get to go to Cyrene reef with Dr Lane and everyone else again! Woot! ::

Back to Chek Jawa: Sat, 12 March 2008

:: Finally. after 2 weeks of hell, which was disguised prettily as the Singapore Fashion Festival, I headed out with Team Seagrass today to our everyones well loved shore, Chek Jawa, for a much anticipated breather from regular life ::

:: The sky was a washed in soft dusty pinks and lilacs and as the sun slowly crept out to welcome a new day, it hung in the sky, a blazed, proud, its orange like the yolk of a duck's egg. A light mist shrouds the island, beckoning with hidden delights. Definitely a morning worth waking up for ::

:: Shiny agate-coloured termite marched along side the path to CJ, while the torrential tropical rain on Friday knocked these durian flowers from its tree, covering the path with its waxy glossy petals ::

:: We had quite a good turn out this morning, so together with the NParks team and Ria (who brought us to the motherlode of rare Beccari's seagrass), we created the third transect for Chek Jawa, just off House No. 1 ::

:: A big patch of Beccari...really tiny and covered by gunk and algae....but its there. You can see them much more clearly on Ria's blog here. ::

:: Have never been to this side of Chek Jawa before so it was rather interesting to say the least. Besides the Beccari, we found a type of unique bivalve called the window pane shells, in various sizes, shapes and iridescent colours. You may have seen this shell in the form of dusty lamps or wind chimes made from these creatures in South East Asia and as a result, over collected for the tourist trade ::

:: Transect 3 was fairly simple since there are only two types of seagrasses: Beccari and Halophila ovalis, Kenerf and I walked out to the coral rubble after we were done ::

:: Pulau Seduku seems so near. And that massive tanker is evident that we are right smack in the middle of one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world ::

:: The boardwalk which leads from House No. 1 ::

:: We chanced upon these two Coastal Horseshoe Crabs (Tachypleus gigas). They were probably mating when we disturbed them. Horseshoe crabs are not true crabs and they are related to spiders and have been around since the age of the dinosaurs ::

:: Chanced upon a brown blob and thought it was a sea cucumber of sorts. Then it started to move and realised that it was a sea hare. You can see the internalised shell in the middle of its body ::

:: The carpet anemones are doing very well. There were so many of them and they seem to be really close to one another. I was wondering if they were mating as there were floating blobs of translucent mucus floating amongst the algae and seagrasses and were particularly near the carpet anemones ::

:: A selmacis sea urchin ::

:: First star of the day, a yummy looking biscuit star (Goniodiscaster scaber) ::

:: Herons and egrets having their breakfast and in the background, Ria with her black umbrella. ::

:: Found this dead biscuit star under the boardwalk. It looked like it imploded and something that happened to many of the sea creatures during the mass death of Chek Jawa in 2007. Could it be due to the rain of recent days? ::

:: Fortunately, this orange Cake Sea Star (Anthenea aspera) looks healthy. Gerald found it whilst looking for his orange pegs which he had dropped while monitoring ::

:: Chay Hoon showed me these rocks stars underneath a rock. She said they were having a concert underneath. Ha! ::

:: Nearby, a thunder crab (Myomenippe hardwickii) protects her eggs. Legend has it that if one's fingers are caught between the powerful claws of this crab, it would need a clap of thunder for the crab to release it ::

:: A fan shell, encrusted with tube worms and things. In the background, the Chek Jawa boardwalk ::

:: Chay Hoon found this bubble shell or headshield slug. Isn't it pretty? ::

:: As was walking back to House No. 1, went to have a closer look on the shore plants of Chek Jawa. The white flower with the pink centre belongs to Singapore's native Pong-pong tree (Cerbera odollam). It can only be found on natural coastal forests such as those found on Chek Jawa ::

:: And the Seashore nutmeg (Knema globularia) were fruiting. And a sea hibiscus (Hibiscus tiliaceus) ::

:: A juvenile horseshoe crab...::

:: View of the boardwalk at House No. 1. It was a lovely day actually, though some what marred by the incessant noise by inconsiderate and silly visitors from a certain girls school on the boardwalk, who probably fightened all the shy animals like civet cats and squirrels away ::

:: But, all in all it was a lovely day to be out traipsing on Chek Jawa. Great to see everyone and to hear Siti bellowing and making her snide caustic remarks that could burn the skin off anyone.. Oh yes, I have here a snap shot of the "Ubin Fashion Festival"........::

:: Actually one of them was wearing a pair shiny black kitten heels. Unfortunately, my stealth camera taking skills are pathetic so ... ::

Go wild on a landfill: Pulau Semakau: 20 Feb 2008

:: It was a great day to be away from the insanity of concrete hive. Clear blue skies, gusty breezes beckon on Singapore's only landfill, Pulau Semakau. So while poor Charmaine has chewed her fingers to stumps due to the Singapore Fashion Festival 2008 press conference at Victoria Theatre, I made my obligatory appearance there, left, and met up with Kenerf to head to Marina Pier to get on the boat to Semakau with the other TeamSeagrassers. ::

::From afar, the concrete jungle. ::

:: My 2nd time on the island. My first can be found here and here. This time round, I teamed up with Ria (again) and we were given the ardous task of monitoring with a "botak", whistling quadrant (above) at Site 3. Under Ria's stewardship, I learn how to ID more species of sea grasses, namely the Sickle seagrass (thalassia), Needle seagrass (halodule uninervis) and Ribbon seagrass (cymodocea rotundata). Read more of our ordeal here. ::

:: The tides was still relatively high as we arrived rather early so we decided to head of to explore other bits of Semakau like the mangrove area. ::

:: Left: A lone mangrove sapling on the mudflat. Right: Telescope creeper snail (Telescopium telescopium). ::

:: Decided to stalk the sandbar and found these fiddler crabs. Right: The male fiddler owns a bigger and brighter claw to attract the attention of a female crab (left) by waving it around in the air. And the bigger and brighter the crab's appendage, the higher the chance he gets to fertilise her eggs. So really, you can say that female fiddler crabs are size queens. ::

:: After monitoring, we went to explore the coral rubble area. We stubbled upon this giant anemone (stichodactyla gigantea), and there was bivalve of sorts growing besides it. ::

:: Up close look of the anemone's tentacles and mouth/anus. ::

:: A noble volute (cymbiola nobilis) laying eggs. This pretty snail has fascinating markings on its shell, as if a drunk, in a moment of inspiration, decided to paint mountains with a chinese paint brush on the shell. The volute has a striking vermillion & black foot. ::

:: Loads of fan worms in the shimmering rock pools.::

:: Found this flatworm. It does look like a nudibranch at first. Many flat worms mimic nudibranch as most species of nudibranchs are poisonous, flat worms benefit from this mistaken identity and gets to live another day ::

:: The polka-dotted nudibranch (Jorunna funebris) Ria spotted a pair mating!.::

:: A spider conch (lambi lambis)! Have always wanted to see one. Its comical beady eyes looks like something out of an alien movie. Its rather rare in Singapore waters as it used to be eaten and probably is still consumed in other countries. ::

:: Colonial anemones or zoanthids. After Kusu Island, I grew rather fond of them cause they are so pretty and unassuming. The one on the right looks like a bouquet of daisies as its tentacles come out to feed. ::

:: Flowery soft coral, hard corals, dead men's fingers, mushroom...so many of them on Semakau...would you believe this is a landfill. In fact, there are still areas of Semakau waiting to be explored. ::

:: A shocking pink sponge. Seems to be like the one I photographed the last time I was there. Hmmm. ::

:: Frilly Anemones, its tentacles like antiquated Victorian lace ::

:: Honestly, I would be just happy to sit and watch the sky turn to dusk, as the clouds float by amongst the crazy clolurs of the sky. (Okay, fine I didn't get to see the knobbly sand stars, thats why I was looking at the sky...And Chay Hoon told me subsequently that there was one along the path i was walking. Damn!) ::

:: Lucky for us, we didnt get the swarms of mosquitoes which usually descends upon us as we leave the beach. We even had a bus come pick us up, saving us the long walk back (though the walk back was really nice in the evening the last time I was there). Doesn't seem like we are in Singapore eh? ::

::  When we arrived back at the visitor centre, the garbage barge was just coming in, carrying the burnt remains of our concrete jungle's filth. Its HUGE! ::

:: Once again, I had a lovely time on Semakau and can't wait to be back. If you wish to volunteer for team seagrass, click here. We need all the help we can get! And chances are, you may get to meet NParks celebrity scientist extraordinaire and Polar chicken pie model, Siti (above)! She is SUPER FRIENDLY (she's the first who showed me the ropes to sea grass monitoring when I first joined TeamSeagrass last Oct on Sentosa) and if you want to get into her good books, just get her muffins from Shunfu Mart or make her a batch of piping hot strawberry waffles, topped with nuttella ice-cream. And because of that, she might even give you Site 3 when you monitor on Semakau...right Siti?? ::

CNY 3 on Kusu Island (9 Feb 2008)

:: Out and about on the Southern Islands again, and today its Kusu. Many are familiar with the island as during the 9th Lunar month, Taoists descend upon this tiny isle to visit the Tua Pek Kong temple to pray. There is also a Malay shrine on the island, up a hill. However, not many know that there is a lovely reef found here and a group of volunteers called the Blue Water Volunteers ( BWV) conducts guided shore walks here as well. ::

:: And it was a beautiful day to be out. The sky was clear, wind was invigorates the soul tormented by too many pineapple tarts and kueh bangkut. Charmaine and Kenerf came along, and it was also Charmaine's first time out on the intertidal for walkies. ::

:: Top: The cheery trio. Bottom: Singapore skyline from Kusu and what Ria calls the blight on our city scape, the Singapore Eye. Ha! ::

:: Water wasn't as low we expected. It was silty and wherever we walked we tend to muck up the water. The tide also came in rather quickly as well but we did manage to check out two lagoons and see interesting things ::


:: Plenty of carpet anemones can be found. They are the same species (Stichodactyla haddoni) as the ones found on Chek Jawa, which we help Kok Sheng monitor for his project ::

:: Marcus found a snapping shrimp or pistol shrimp. They are the ones that cause the popping sound one would hear during low tides. The shrimp has one pincher bigger than the other and has a mechanism that causes the pincher to create a short, powerful sound wave. Using this, it is able to stun small prey and even break open hard shells. ::

:: We found a pair of common sea stars making out ::

:: Underside of the sand star and those tube like things are the feet. The mouth of the animal is in the centre ::


::There are lots of hard corals growing in the lagoon. Branching corals and boulder shaped ones. ::

:: Above is a group of colonial anemones in a crevice. ::

:: Marcus, ever informative, found this pretty little nudibranch near some corals. It feeds on sponges, as I was told. ::

:: And he found a juvenile grunt as well::

:: A pretty little frilly anemone found amongst some branching coral ::

:: As it got darker and realising that the tide isnt really receding much, we went to check out the shore on the other side of the island, where the jetty is. And we found zoanthids everywhere, in myraid colours. ::


:: What are zoanthids? Well, they are related to anemones and corals (Phylum: cnidarians). The colours are determined by the algae which lives inside the zoanthids, somewhat like the giant clam. Whatever it is, it sure is mighty pretty!::

:: Actually we found a fish trap and inside there was a copperbanded butterfly fish. It belonged to people who worked in the temple but anyway, we just released it for it did look very sad inside the cage. ::

:: We went over to the other lagoon and saw more carpet anemones (but no shrimp) We saw a lone peacock anemone in the murky water. ::

:: Gobies camouflaged against the sand. They are related to mud-skippers and are common around our shores. I don't think anyone has specifically researched on the number of species that can be found here. Granted, they are rather dull looking to begin with. ::

:: This is a black lipped conch. You can actually see its eyes, which reminds me of the eyes of a Muppet. Charmaine saw a few gong gongs and their eyes and has vowed never to eat anything with such expressive eyes, again. ::

:: A prawn. Wild. Not intended for the dinning table. Well, not yet ::

:: A surprising find was this rather stoic looking ghost crab (Ocypode ceratophthamla). I thought it was dead until it decided it had enough of attention from the rest of us and started to dig itself into the silt. But of course not before a few choice photos ::

:: Thank you Ria for organising these trips! It truly has been an amazing and memorable Chinese New Year for me. I can't wait the next trip out already. ::

CNY 2 on Pulau Hantu (8 Feb 2008)

:: Chinese New Year usually is a done deal for me by the first day. Thus, when Ria was so kind to organise trips to the Southern Islands during this festive season, I pounced on the opportunity to escape from festive obligations. Well, how many rounds of mahjong, bak kwa, tangerines and pineapple tarts can one take before ennui and indigestion sets in? ::

:: My first time on Pulau Hantu, and no there are no hantus (not that I saw or felt one that is) on this beautiful islet. Many families come here over the long festive weekend to camp and it turns into a kampong of sorts. ::

:: There are three lagoons on the island, and just across, one can see the massive silos and refineries that make our nation very rich. One might think with such polluting industries relatively near to the shore there wouldn't be much to see but the reef and marine life seems to be thriving in the waters off Pulau Hantu.There is a even a group of Singaporeans who come to Hantu to dive and discover its natural underwater beauty. Turtles have been spotted here too! ::

:: A narrow channel seperates Pulaur Hantu from Pulau Busing and Pulau Bukom::

:: Top Left: Common sand star (Archaster typicus)Top Right: Tape sea grass (Enhalus acrorides) covered in some sort of algae or animal (ancidians?) Bottom: An indignant crab all riled up to do battle with me::

::Saw these two fishes (blennies? gobies?) doing this sort of dance among the sea grass. Strange though, one has its mouth attached to the belly of the other the whole time. Collecting eggs? Perhaps they are mouth breeders ::

::Spectacular fan worms::

:: Chay Hoon found this lovely feather star (crinoids or sea lilies)::

::The globally vulnerable Giant Clam. Found two of them in the lagoon, fairly big. One of them had a mushroom coral or bubble coral living next to it. The colours you see are zooxanthellae (algae) which lives in its mantle and the clam opens its lips in the sun so that the algae can photosynthesis, and extract nutrients from them. In return, the clam protects the algae. ::

:: Colonial anemones or zoanthids. When submerged in the water, its tentacles come out to feed on zooplankton.::

::The reef reveals itself to us as the tide receded. Lucky for us, the water was super clear today and we saw plenty. However, sargassum seaweeds were growing thick across the reef ::

:: Leathery soft corals like these can be seen with their polyps out, some the size of coffee tables. ::

:: Corals living on top of other corals ::

:: This coral is named dead men's fingers ::



:: Magnificent and giant anemones (Stichodactyla gigantea & Heteractis magnifica) can be found, though i personally didn't see any clown fish aka nemos, they do live amongst these beauties.::

::And, found near these huge anemones are tiny frilly anemones.::

::More soft corals. Again, I couldn't find any shrimps, coweries or snails on these pink corals ::

 
::  Saw mushroom corals as well, with their polyps out too. They can actually move ::

:: Siyang, Sijie, July and Ron found these very auspicious looking red feather stars ::


:: Top: A tiny perfectly round hard coral (faviidae). Bottom: Blue sponges amongst zoanthids ::

::Nudibranchs named discodoris boholensis.How I recall its latin name? DORIS the BOHO LEN's SIS-ter likes to go to the DISCO.
(thanks sijie for the heads up on my spelling mistake...btw, this flatworm is probably first found on the island of Bohol in the Philippines ::

:: As dusk, came Ria and I explored the other lagoons. We saw amongst this clump of orange sponge a swimming anemone and a flat worm. ::

:: As I was walking back to the first lagoon, I found these two sad looking nudibranchs. Can see the rhinophores? ::

:: The common sand stars are out on the sandy part of the lagoon. I just found out that their anuses are located on top of their bodies ::

:: And to end of the night, I perved on sand stars having sex. The males are on top while the females are below, usually minding their own business until some horny sand star comes by and climbs on top of them and clamps themselves between the arms (rape!). Okay la, they just release eggs and sperm into the water ::

:: Thank Ria for organising this Chinese New Year trips. And everyone else who made it so enjoyable. And thus to say thanks I have blogged about our wonderful trip, though I hate it (blogging, not the shore) and its painful and I should be sleeping. Okay, Kusu blog tommorrow or later or something. ::