Remembering Chek Jawa

Today was transect day for CJ and we got down to work immediately after finding a way to go around the boardwalk which was almost completed.




Chek Jawa looked better and better every time we visited and it is clear that recovery from the mass dieoff is on the right track. Inspired by Dr Chua's Pulau Jong photo, I took this picture of Chek Jawa as how it looks like now.


Algae was prevalent so were the seagrass meadows, everything was very much alive!


The sun was blazing hot and the Seagrassers push on!


Some of us were doing the transect....


Some of us were busy filming...


The H. ovalis there are really HUGE!!
Some were even the size of my thumb!


After doing the transect, I ventured out to the coral rubble area and over there laid a huge H. spinulosa meadow


Amazing isn't it


An interesting sight I noticed is that there was a region where the seagrass were dried.
They weren't burnt but dry like dead leaves and were rather brittle.


And of course the carpet anemones are back and they sure look different from when I first set foot on CJ. I remember that I had always wanted to visit this place but either I was too busy or did not know how to register for the walks and ended up admiring pictures in the Ubin coffeeshops.
So the first time I was brought to CJ was during the orientation transect and it wasn't anything I expected it to be. It didn't even smell like the CJ I had envisioned at all. So as I did the transect, I couldn't help but feel a little sense of disappointment.
However, now that I've been there a few more times, CJ is opening its wonders to me again. And thinking back of the time I first saw it, I was filled with exhiliration that nature is so powerful!


We even ventured out to the beacon as the tide was up to knee level (for me)


Can you spot the juvenile halfbeak in this phtoto?


Wilson saw this crab holding on to dear life on a piece of driftwood.
It wasn't anything particularly interesting until....


Someone flipped the driftwood over to reveal a brunette in his arms! (or claws)
See, even crabs can be romantic


As the tide came in, all of us rushed to the shore before we got to swim
CJ is definately a lovely place


And on the way back to the meeting point, we came across this.
Siti was saying, "why need plastic bags? just take the whole darn thing la"
I guess some people are still reluctant to BYOB haha