The Blue Heaven

Invertebrate mania at Semakau

2007-09-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

Was at Semakau with a couple of NParks dudes to collect mysid shrimp (they're not shrimps, they just look like one).

After the early boat ride to our rubbish dump island, we got to know that we had to walk all the way from the jetty to the shore. I was so used to that comfy van ride from the TSG trips that the walk seemed endless (look at the picture below for a guage).

As usual, the vicious mozzies trailed us all the way from the forest till the seagrass meadow. Collecting mysid was kind of fun except for the fact that the tide is coming in fast and we need to work double time so that we can explore the place.

We found 2 sea cucumbers and Robin decided to become a surgeon and took out a piece of sharp razor to cut off pieces of skin off one of them for studies. Apparently this procedure does not hurt them and surprisingly it didn't even eviscerate.

I went out further to check out the cliff but the tide didn't allow me entry so I checked out the corals there instead. There were quite a lot of large polyped stony corals and their colours were amazing, most of them probably extremely fluorescent. They looked healthy too compared to my previous trip there where I found quite a few with parasitic flatworms.

There was also a mass mating of sea stars and we soon got engrossed in all the activity. Robin was trying to figure out why the sea stars stack atop of each other during mating and the rest of us were just getting high seeing all the procreation going on.

After we're done with the collection and the tide raging in like a flooding river, we quickly headed out and began on yet another long long walk to the jetty. Maybe the heat was getting into us but while most of us slept while waiting for the boat to arrive, Wilson and Uncle Tay decided to catch dragonflies instead.

Yeah we sure were dead beat after the long morning of work....

And its back to the lab to assess what we collected. We weren't sure whether the shrimp like creatures we got were mysid because it was hard to tell by looking but the microscopy work proved us right! Mysid have that characteristic "pouch" called the marsupium which would carry eggs. They also look a little different from shrimp when viewed from the top.

Another interesting find while collecting the mysid was this strange bright orange gastropod which appeared in mass. We've never seen it before, anyone knows what it is?

And lastly, this was being cultured by us, not collected from Semakau. This is a rotifer, strange looking creature isn't it?

Chek out the featherstars

2007-08-18T20:48:00.000-07:00

Was at CJ early last Thursday morning helping Kok Sheng with his project on the CJ mass death incident. I'm supposed to do a survey on the sand dollars together with Robert and gosh was it a lot of work!

So while the both of us were digging our hands into the sand to scoop up the sand dollars, I did manage to catch some interesting creatures that roamed the shore that breezy morning.

Almost immediately, one would spot these gorgeous peacock anemones and they come in all imaginable colours.

What interested me most was the unusual number of featherstars on the shore. These guys aren't built to live on the sand (as they have claw like structures which they use to perch on corals and stuff) so their appearence on CJ might just be coincidental or something else....

There's more to come later so keep checking back!!

Team Seagrass Special Edition Part 2

2007-07-22T05:02:00.000-07:00

Hey so you've seen what a typical work day for the seagrassers are like so now's for the fun part: after the transect!

So what DO we do after getting down and dirty in the mud? Well, we chill out at the newly renovated No. 1 house! Ria brought some ham, raisin bread, 100 plus and not to forget some funky seafood spread (everything is really nice if you don't mix them together).

Here's a funny picture of Ria trying to get a photo of some of us from the second storey window of No. 1 house

On our return from the shore to the wash area, some of us caught sight of this cool bird that sung a lovely serenade with a cricket in its beak. Impressive isn't it!

So after eating and resting and chatting, we finally got our lazy bums up for a guided boardwalk on the newly constructed erm, boardwalk. And just as we're about to leave No. 1 house, there's a bunch of termites leaving their home too.

Now, all geared up with our photography equipment (you'd be surprised at the gear we have), the avid seagrassers went back out to the shore, this time all high and dry.

Even the passers by were curious to check out what we found. I guess this is also very good for them as well as most people are just to lazy to read the information boards (Ria's complaining that the designers had all her pictures flipped)

Throughout the guided walk, there was also a little bug that followed us wherever we went and we christened it the "Sea Bee" (for those irritated by it, they have another interpretation of that name)

Cheng Puay was also busy showing us all the interesting plants along the way. It seems most of them are commonly called "Sea - something" depending on their resemblance to other plants. There's the Sea Nutmeg, the Sea Hibiscus, etc.

Another attraction of the boardwalk is this very tall observation tower that allows you to have a panoramic view of CJ. Here's Dionne taking photos after a futile search for eagles.

Not all seagrassers were as gung ho to climb up the stairs of the observation tower. Some just preferred to stay at ground level.

Nearing the end of the boardwalk, we spotted this dead eel. Did it get stranded amongst the dense algae? Oh and we met James who was also photographing at the boardwalk.

Cheng Puay is trying to get a positive identification for this strange blue fruit. Its amazing what you can find if you look hard enough.

And lastly, this is how the flower of the Sea Hibiscus looks like. Really neat stuff!

TeamSeagrass Special Edition blog entry

2007-07-15T08:48:00.000-07:00

Its been a long long time since I blogged because I went away to Sabah on a conservation project with Sijie.
Anyway, today's blog is going to be a Special Edition entry for TSG.
For those who somehow got to read my blog and wondering what it is like to be a seagrasser, I'm going to present you "A day in the life of a seagrasser".

Firstly, depending on the tide times, we get up really really early in the morning to proceed to our destination for monitoring. Usually we're all blur and grumpy but the spectacular sunrise never fails to uplift our spirits!

Then it's rush hour to get down and out with the monitoring as we only have a time frame to work before the water comes back in and floods the whole shore. We'll start off by laying the 50m transect tape so that we know where to place the quadrats.

Once that's done, the teams would check each quadrat position for things like seagrass coverage, algae coverage, etc. Here's Nor Aishah measuring the canopy height of Cymodocea rotundata which is the length of the seagrass itself.

After about half an hour, we'd be almost done and packing up. Then the fun comes as we'll spend the remaining time exploring the shore for interesting creatures like these:

I noticed that for Chek Jawa, we usually forget about the rocks around the boardwalk so I decided to take a look today and saw these rock anemones. The team also spotted a juvenile monitor lizard around the rocks.

So after the tide rises and we evacuate the area, it's time to head to the wash area to wash the equipment and ourselves up.

Then it's also checking to see that none of us left a compass in our pocket or the data sheet tucked in our pants.

And after that usually we'll either head for some food or go straight home if we're tired. Stay tuned for a part 2 of what we did after the transect at CJ!

Sentosa really "Blakang Mati"

2007-05-23T07:26:00.000-07:00

Its very saddening to receive news on the doomed Sentosa shore. Especially for me, I might not have a chance to visit it again as the NHC trips are scheduled right smack in the middle of my test week.

Looking at the giant Euphyllia sp., the sponges, the critters, it really brings to me the issue of sustainable development. I always had this notion that one day, we'll reach a point of environmental crisis and its already too late for anything to be done.

Our environment is always on the bottom of a priority list and this itself, is like a drug, the more we try to ignore it, the worser it'll come back to us. This year marks a milestone for everyone for it is this year that we finally experience the "Doomsday Effect" that was predicted but tucked under the rug as a piece of nonsense. With rains coming in the dry months, freakish weather and even unpredictable tides, I don't know what more must we see before it strikes each and every one of us that our Earth is ill.

Its a dilemma I know, that our country dreams of earning a little extra pocket money and at the same time, face with nosey volunteers coming up to foil their plans. When will these people understand that there would never be an end to competition, to development, to wealth while places like Sentosa's shore faces the gallows?

Its overdue time for us to take a LONG HARD LOOK at ourselves and think, would you really want Sentosa to forever carry the stigma of being Pulau Blakang Mati?

*"Blakang Mati" means "death at the back" in Malay

Semakau, a land filled with wonders

2007-05-22T07:41:00.000-07:00

It was a blazing morning as the sun revealed itself in a majestic manner, firing up the sky a deep orange red which finally simmered down to a cloudy brown as we passed Pulau Jong to reach Pulau Semakau.

The avid seagrassers were also busy with shooting this wonderful sunrise, a good omen for the day ahead perhaps?

This trip would mark my second time here at Semakau and I'm very very excited to visit the large seagrass meadow and the reef edge there.

After doing the transect, its exploring time again and this time, armed with a new 35mm Macro lens, I went to peer closer at what actually lies in our waters. On the seagrass, there were many sponge-like "growths" which are actually ascidians or more commonly called sea squirts. These cute fellas come in all shapes, sizes and colours and some are even solitary (these here are colonial).

The corals there look healthy too and some of them are just HUGE. I'm still looking out for those pink porites which I think are pink due to a pigment they produce to shield them from the sun's UV rays.

Scattered around the intertidal zone are numerous sponges that may resemble the stony corals seen there except that they are soft. These guys actually get their nutrition from particulate matter in the water column and they do that by sucking in water from small pores called ostia and filtering the water with tiny hairs in their main body. The water is then expelled out from a bigger opening called the oscula. Interesting isn't it!

While treading back to collect my transect tape and bag, I chanced upon this Heliofungia sp. which looks like an anemone. These corals, although the uncanny similarities to anemones, belong to a totally different group of corals as they build a calcium carbonate skeleton whereby the anemone does not.

Other than the animals there, the algaes are also quite interesting if you look at them closer. This purplish, stringy algae was found on the stake marking the transect area. Looks a bit like the "fa cai" that Chinese people eat during the New Year.

Further up after the seagrass meadow, I found quite a few Halimeda sp. which are a special type of algae that incorporate calcium into their tissues. These algaes are crucial for reefs as they provide a substrate for the many organisms to grow on.

There's also this awesome looking one that looks like fingernails

Near my transect site, I spotted this horseshoe crab moult. I didn't know horseshoe crab moults are actually orange in colour as they usually are green. I'm also quite amazed by the seemingly perfect symmetry in the shell.

Helen found this little Batfish amongst some seagrass. This guy was just about palm size and could grow up to bigger than my head when it matures. The adults are usually darker in colour and their fins might also develop streamers.

As noon approaches, the weather started to turn scorching hot! Some of us couldn't take the heat and rested in the shade while waiting for the others to be done with their exploring. Ironically, this parched land would soon be engulfed by the incoming tide.

Besides the watery wonders, there are also nice finds on land too. I noticed that there were many mangrove seedlings growing. Hopefully, when I return in the future, they would have grown into trees.

This strange looking plant actually has hairy fruits!

Who would've thought that the world looks so different close up. Maybe everyone in this world should take a closer look at our Earth, as taking a peek might reveal a whole new story...

Surprises at Changi

2007-05-13T23:06:00.000-07:00

Was at Changi beach having a barbeque to celebrate my cousin's birthday and we took a stroll down the beach when I found this intriguing creature. At first I thought it was just some rotting fruit but it started moving and when I peered down, it looked more like a sea hare.

Then an uncle came and told me not to go near it as it was a jellyfish. And as I left, I saw him kicking it back into the sea (felt so bad after that).

Then at night, we went to a stretch of metal railings that was designated as the fishing spot. As the anglers lashed out their lines at the pitch dark waters, lit only with the city lights and the occasional headlamps of landing planes, my cousin told me to take a look below.

To my utter amazement, there were glowing streaks in the water! And I looked on and figured that they were actually luminiscent fishes. How amazing is that?

Wild side of Pasir Ris

2007-05-12T10:04:00.000-07:00

Blogger seemed to have some problems with my browser these few days so this is a little back dated.

Anyway, it was a lovely morning and I didn't have lessons till the afternoon so I went down to the mangroves at Pasir Ris to check out the wildlife there.

The morning dew of the plants there are just so refreshing!

This canine friend was actually doing its morning workout by running circuits around the whole boardwalk area (no kidding!).

As I approached the bridge near the site where Sijie had his snake hunts, I was quite amazed to not only find one but TWO bicycles washed up onto the concrete structures there. Is it a trend now to dump bicycles into our canals?

Actually the main reason for me to head down to the area is to catch a photo of a really nice bird that would perch on a branch sticking out from the trees. That fella didn't come but I did catch some photos of other birds that we don't normally see on the streets.

And I also ventured to the rocks just before the flat "plateau" (sorry, couldn't find a good description). First thing I found there was one of my favourite creatures, an onch (Onchidium sp.)

I really liked this photo as the bigger crab looks as if it is domineering the smaller one haha.

I didn't go onto the boardwalk due to the time but I'll do an entry on there very soon!
Next up is a strange find at Changi Beach while having a barbeque for my little cousin's birthday

The Saint of the South

2007-05-07T07:52:00.000-07:00

It was a very sleepy morning as Gaytri, Muratti, Andy and me arrived at Marina South Pier for the trip to St. John's Island. We were just about to depart when Ria saw James coming in and shouted for him to hurry up and he ran down and boarded the boat just in time.

The morning was spectacular with a pink sunrise coming from behind us. Sisters Islands were in the distance and so as was Sentosa.

Very quickly, the sky turned a pleasant blue which was reflected off the crystal clear waters at SJ.

The shores were littered with corals and rubble with a small patch of seagrass where the sediment was a bit muddy. In the pitch darkness of the early morning and under the guidance of Gaytri's torch, I spotted this conspicuous flatworm Pseudobiceros bedfordi lying on some rocks. As Andy and Muratti was filming and taking pictures, this bugger decided it would take a swim to Muratti's shoes!

Following the flatworm find, Andy spotted a really tiny Copperband butterflyfish Chelmon rostratus swimming in a small pool of water. These guys are often collected from the wild for the aquarium trade and sadly, many hobbyists do not realise that these fishes eat coral tissue and end up "humanely euthanising" them when they start pecking on their precious coral displays.

As we were walking along the shore, Ria suddenly let out a thunderous announcement "Crinoid!!". Everybody went over and there laid a blackish green featherstar on a piece of rock. According to Ria, featherstars are not commonly found on the shores and this one probably got washed up.

We also found a nudibranch Glossodoris atromarginata not far from the featherstar!

One thing I noticed about St. John's is the abundance of large rock anemones compared to the many carpet anemones found at the other sites.

I also managed to find another flatworm which was black and had an orange ring on its "skirt". I really love to see the flatworms swim as it is a truely amazing sight.

This great looking crab was very shy and didn't want to be photographed. I had to stand really really still and tolerate all the sandflies to get this shot of its beautiful shell.

On the rocks I noticed quite an extensive encrustation of coralline algae. This might show that St. John's has the potential to develop as a reef that is abundant with life.

As we were walking back in the direction of the hut where we put our barang barang, James found this green nudibranch which had black spots on its underside.

A few steps ahead, we spotted this goby that was out of water. James used his big hands to scoop the fish into a pool of water nearby.

Ria went to find the fiddler crabs and brought back this remains of a volcano barnacle. Inside the little "mountain" that we normally see are little pores that serve to keep the creature cool. Talk about living in comfort!!

Other than Gaytri who didn't bring along a camera, the rest of us were shooting in DSLR glory. I managed to get this shot of our cameras when we were eating breakfast after the long morning. From the left is Andy's Olympus E1, Muratti's Nikon D70 and James's Canon 20D. Ria has her two very famous cameras that seldom leaves her neck (which explains why they are not in the picture haha).

On our way back, we spotted a pair of mating grasshoppers and Andy was really kind to lend me his 50mm macro lens to get a shot. It was a long morning but all so worth it!

Yes it can be done

2007-04-25T19:06:00.000-07:00

I came across this quote from a friend's blog and I thought, no matter how hard the world is going to blame and challenge nature conservation efforts, as long as each and everyone who cared believes in the ultimate cause, anything could be done.

Don't give up guys! Allez!

If it couldn't be done

Somebody said that it couldn't be done,
But, he with a chuckle replied
That "maybe it couldn't" but he would be one
Who wouldn't say so till he'd tried.

So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn't be done, as he did it.

Somebody scoffed: "Oh, you'll never do that;
At least no one we know has done it";
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the first thing we knew he'd begun it.

With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn't be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.

But just buckle right in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That cannot be done, and you'll do it

Remembering Chek Jawa

2007-04-23T06:45:00.000-07:00

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

Coralline algae lines Sentosa

2007-04-11T09:43:00.000-07:00

It was a very sleepy morning as I just alighted my plane from Shanghai and rushed to Sentosa for the TeamSeagrass transect. I was the first to reach the Ben and Jerry's and it was kind of weird to see Sentosa so quiet (it was just me and the guard there).

Anyway, we headed down to the transect area after waiting for NParks who were late as usual. The tide was quite high when we reached there so Shufen gave us a briefing on the random method we were going to use. We tried to wait out the tide by having some food but as luck might have it, the tide did not really go down. We then decided to explore the place instead.

One thing I realised at Sentosa which I did not see at the other places was an abundance of coralline algae growing on the rocks.

This is another growth form of coralline algae

Coralline algae are a type of marine algae that is hard, unlike your usual Ulva or Chaetomorpha because they deposit calcium carbonate into their cell walls. The reason why I am very interested in coralline algae is that they have key roles in reef building. When they grow in sheets coverig rocks and substrate, they deposit considerable amounts of calcium carbonate, sometimes even more than corals and thus constitute to reef growth.

Another reason why coralline algae is important to reefs is that they keep it from being washed away by crashing waves. When these algae encrust onto a substrate and builds on it, it forms a sheet that can withstand the strong currents of crashing waves that even the most rugged corals would be washed away. The coralline algae also forms what is called an algal ridge when they grow on the outer reef edge. This algal ridge will sort of cushion the force of the strong water currents and prevent the reef from being eroded away.

One last importance of coralline algae to reef building is that it works as the reef's superglue. This is an important role because if the sediment are not bonded together, fine sediment will damage corals when they settle on them. When coralline algae grows over a sediment substrate, it literally bonds the substrate together, creating a solid structure for corals to grow on and prevent any loose sediment from settling on the corals. The reef in this case grows via both the binding of sediment and the growth of corals.

Algaes that deposit calcium carbonate into their cell walls like Halimeda sp. generally also help in such functions in one way or another.

Talking about algae, I also noticed quite a few patches of what seem to be Chaetomorpha sp. or commonly called "speghetti algae". These algae are also quite different from the rest because it does not permanently attach itself to a substrate. If you'd notice, macroalgae like and Caulerpa sp. and Sargassum sp. attaches itself tightly to a substrate and would not get washed away in the tide. However, Chaetomorpha sp. is just a bunch of free floating algae that does not possess any structures like runners to attach to a surface. This led me to think, maybe it is an adaptation for them to maximise photosynthesis. I noticed that although they cannot attach to a substrate, they do get "caught" on rocks when their bunch of curly whirly strands act like some sort of velcro. They then stay there until the currents detach them and they go with the flow till they get caught at another rock. This, I think, allows almost 360 degrees of photosynthesis to occur since the bottom strands are shaded until they get a chance to receive sunlight when the bunch flips and turns in the currents when they are detached. I'll try to illustriate my point next time with pictures.

Anyway, Wilson the "worm guy" from NParks was also out catching, yes you've guess it, worms! I hope he won't mind me showing this pic of him in action trying to coax a Eunice sp. out of its hole.

Shufen even challenged him to find 3 worms for a lunch treat and guess what, Wilson overturned a small rock and using his chopsticks, picked out 8 worms! There were even more squirming in the sand!

Ascidian galore at Cyrene

2007-03-24T08:12:00.000-07:00

On a fine Thursday morning, we gathered at West Coast Pier to head for Cyrene Reef. Our boat was really really REALLY slow and we decided to name it the "Onchi Boat" after our dear onchs.

The sunrise was phenomenal as our boat approached the reef which seemed to rise up from the sea as the tide moves away.

Finally on dry land after the amphibious landing, we wasted no time to get everything up and kicking.

You can see that as the tide goes out, it magically reveals the marvellous Cyrene which in other times, submerged under water.

I couldn't help but post this picture to show just how nice the morning sky was

There were seagrasses on Cyrene too! (A very huge meadow actually)

And of course there was the common Halophila ovalis amongst the other 5 species of seagrasses there

Here's a pic of what I think are burnt seagrasses

Looks really bad for this patch

Look at the diversity of life in this puddle! Nature's ever amazing...

There were these hairy looking algaes everywhere and on closer look, there are small shirmp on the strands. (Yes, those white stuff are actually shrimp)

This thing felt hard, is it some green coralline algae?

The corals over at Cyrene were also gorgeous with organisms like brittlestars and fanworms living in them

Hard corals and soft corals grow together side by side. The leather coral (Sarcophyton sp.)on the right has long polyps and might engage in chemical warfare with the hard coral beside it whe it grows bigger.

A colony of zoanthids growing on coral rubble. Do you know that zoanthid polyps are all connected to each other? Yet if you cut the tissue joining them, each would colonise again into another colony.

This interesting looking creature is actually a worm that lives inside a tube that it makes. The feathery projections are used to trap food particles drifting in the water. It'll then retract into the tube to consume its food. If you look closely, there are some red specks on the crown and I'm guessing these are microscopic organisms living together with it.

Is hard coral (Pocillopora sp.) has neon green polyps and are frequently used in coral research studies. I only managed to find 1 such colony of this coral but Shufen said she saw quite a few... guess I need to buck up my spotting skills.

This one looks like the one above right? Its actually a leather coral which is a soft coral. Quite amazing that corals can look so alike each other.

This is another hard coral (Montipora digitata) and Ron was very interested to find these especially big colonies as he said seahorses live among them. But try as we might, the team did not find any seahorses on the trip.

I saw quite a few tube anemones too and I'm never once not amazed by these creatures. They come in all sorts of colours from orange to pink to green to purple. And the fact that they live in a tube makes them so different from the anemones we tend to associate the name with!

Here's a green one

This one actually came out of its tube! Wonder whether its stressed or eating something?

There were lots of ascidians too and they also come in all sorts of wacky colours.
Here's some pink ones...

And some white ones...

And green ones living on the blades of seagrasses!

We also found some flatworms. This one was found my Gaytri when we went exploring together.

This phychedelic one was caught by Ron. And you thought worms were long, ugly and squishy haha.

While hunting for the knobbly seastar with Ron, we chanced upon a school of eel tail catfish. They look like little tadpoles from the surface.

And we found what we were looking for. This is a juvenile knobbly seastar as its knobs had not fully developed yet.

And straight after the knobbly seastar, Ron shouted for me from like 100m away and said he found a cushion star. Well, here it is!

Of jellies and snakes

2007-03-20T22:28:00.000-07:00

Its Sijie's last installment of the snake hunts and I'm sure not gonna miss a bit of it

Today was only SJ, me and Guy3 because Helen had injured herself...

As usual we went to find snakes that had already eaten for SJ to bring back to the lab.

There was an interesting find though, as SJ caught sight of this jellyfish that got washed ashore. On the previous hunts, the volunteers said they saw jellyfish but we didn't find any.

I also came across another one near the bank. Seems like there's really jellies here

There were lots of Green Chromides (Etroplus suratensis) there too. Its the first time I've seen them so close to the shore.

And the doggy! Beautiful isn't it?

For those who had not experienced the hunt, this is how it looks like when they come up to shore.

One thing I can't grasp is why this species is called dog faced?
Does it look like a dog to you? (say no haha)

And here's the drama of it eating a BIG fish. Beats watching any documentary hands down!

And of course, being a mangrove area, there are other creatures such as this bugger here whom Sijie made very very grumpy.

And as Gaytri requested, here's a pic of her with a baby dog face

More on the doggies

2007-03-08T07:38:00.000-08:00

Went for another 2 more snake hunting sessions with Sijie and his volunteers. I thought I could share what I learnt about these beauties on the blog.

For the past 2 days, I was trying real hard to differentiate the guys from the gals because a visual clue is at this region called the cloaca which is somewhat like a little bellybutton near the rear underside of the snake. For the males, there would be a "barrel" or a segment of equal width just after the cloaca before the tail starts to taper off and this was supposed to contain the penis. For the females, the tail would taper off rather abruptly after the cloaca.

The dog faced watersnake would catch its prey using 2 methods. First one is to "sit and wait" where they basically lay motionless till a fish comes by and then it strikes. According to Sijie, this method is usually used to catch small fishes. The other method is to be actively hunting where the snake would go to deeper waters and catch their prey. This then, is the method of choice for larger fishes.

After catching their prey, the dog faced watersnake would then bring its prey up onto shore and this serves to suffocate the prey and at the same time, provide the snake some leverage to swallow the prey. Ingenious isn't it?

The snakes depend on motion to sense their prey too. This means, you can do all the ugly faces at it and it'll not strike but once you move your fingers in the water, it'll give you a nasty bite. Sijie showed this by splashing water in front of a snake and true enough, it attacked the water droplets.

On the last night, Sijie caught this baby one which was no more than 15cm long and it was really really tame. One of the volunteers fell so much in love with it that she wanted to bring it home but due to the risk of a scale infection, she got the honours to release it instead.

There was also another ambitious fella who had caught a big fat juicy fish a little too big for its size and while attempting to swallow, it actually coughed out blood. Look at what a blood stain it had, gosh it just knew its going to get a bad sore throat....

Higher up on shore, there were lots and lots of nerite snails. I actually found these guys way up on the slope and I wonder why they were not found closer to the water. On the second night, Helen also found a brownish black flatworm at the top of the slope too.

It was really a good experience for me and it is really worth it even though I was dead tired from a day of camping. Many many thanks to Sijie for letting me tag along and showing me these wonderful creatures. And also many thanks to all the volunteers for making the trips as exciting as it was.

More on the snake hunt on the wildfilms blog

Cut by barnacles

2007-03-06T08:56:00.000-08:00

Went with Sijie for a snake hunting trip to catch the dog faced water snake cerberus rynchops for his project
Sijie was very good in explaining the background info about them as I know nuts about snakes
At first I thought it would be kind of big from the picture he had of it but I later found out the bigger ones are probably of managable size

First, we spotted a medium size one but it is not feeding and we went around to see what it looks like
Then Sijie caught one to show the morphology and explain the sexing (which I still can't do)
After that, many more appeared and finally we saw our first one that caught a fish and was trying to swallow it

Almost like a chain of events, there was another one spotted and then it turned out that 2 snakes were fighting over the fish
Subsequently we caught a few more including some large one which really stink
Then the tide came in and the "magic moment" was almost over and most of the snakes went into hiding again

Didn't bring my camera along so no pictures of the trip from me
But I did take a picture of this cut I had when I slipped and went straight into a barnacle covered rock

Its quite a deep cut actually, but not a problem at all and I'll be back with Sijie and guys for the next 2 sessions

It was really an eye opener for me today, hopefully someday I can bring Chloe along since she is the only one who had not been involved in these stuff

Still anticipating the Semakau TeamSeagrass transect
Heard it had the largest seagrass meadow in Singapore!
Got to go see it for myself haha

Getting HIGH at CJ

2007-02-24T07:56:00.000-08:00

Went back to Chek Jawa for the very first real TeamSeagrass transect
The boardwalk is nearing completion and the stench is gone!
Marine life there is slowly recovering though and I'll show you how in a moment
This is how CJ is looking now

Was too busy doing the recording for the transect so didn't take much pics
This was actually found by Jing Kai
Wonder what it is?

Ok, I said I'd show how life is coming back to CJ
It all started with this marvellous creature, the hairy seahare B. leachii

Check out the blue ocilli (eyespots) of the seahare

Don't they just make you go "Awww.."

They sort of crunches into a ball when you touch them
I think they're supposed to ink up when disturbed but I guess they are too busy with the business that's going on....

This is the main attraction of the trip and lo and behold, its seahare erm... procreation day!!

They were doing it in corners, finding a cosy spot to exchange the gift of life

They're also doing it in pools of water

They're EVERYWHERE!!!

And everyone's into the action too
Here's Helen getting down and dirty in the mud

And who can forget Alvin
I wonder whether the seahares feel uncomfortable with such a huge video camera filming them going their business haha

On the way back to the meeting point, I saw this big green carpet anemone
So much different from the dead and dying ones few weeks back

Jing Kai found this big hermit crab too

Kusu smuchsu

2007-02-20T07:51:00.000-08:00

Off to Kusu Island today with the Beachfleas people (sorry for the confusion just now Ria)
Everyone was fast and once they settled in the hut, the filming crew went off with their gears and the others set out to the shore.
Tiong Chin was very fast and before I could even step onto the sand, he was already out in the waters snapping away.

Anyway, here's something interesting I found
At first I thought it was a starfish until I grabbed in and it was just a pile of sand

Ron did manage to find a couple of starfishes (Archaster typicus) though

This one had a blue mouth!

Close up of a healthy carpet anemone
Yum yum, makes me think of honeydew sago

I'm really glad to see big healthy carpet anemones
Our hunt for the clownfishes carries on...

While Ron and his friends were scouring the waters for clownfishes, I chanced upon this little fella
A lone tube anemone on the vast shore (Cerianthus sp.)

Here's another anemone I found
Had almost stepped on it because its so well camouflaged

Close up of the blue tips of this stony coral
They're scattered sparsely on the shore amongst the big brain corals

One of the many brain corals around
Hmm if only my brain was this size....

A colony of Montipora sp. which was amongst the secluded bunch of them
They were just beside the coral rubble (which probably be made up of the montis)
I even saw a small fragment which grew from a broken branch but the water was too murky for a pic

Here's the coral rubble
I wonder what happened to the corals that once used to thrive here

Again, I spotted this mysterious gooey stuff around the seagrass
Here's one for you Siti

And for the final shot, look who's lookin'

P.S. I'm a flash hater so pardon me for not taking night photos
Maybe I will when I get my hands on a DSLR :)

Pics from Tuas transect!!

2007-02-04T06:47:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the stuff I took photos of during the transect
Hope you like it!

This is of a crab I found under a rock while trying to take a pic of Halimeda sp.

This is a tunicate or what is commonly called "Sea Squirt" as they literally squirt water at you when you take them out of water :)

This is a sponge (Porifera sp.) exposed to the air in low tide
Not sure whether they survive this though as most sponges cannot be exposed to air because the air bubbles trapped in their pores will cause the sponge cells to die off

Not everybody is social on the shore...
This lone bugger just wants to be by itself

These are mollusc egg cases I presume
Quite a few around the place

This polyp (Palythoa sp.) seems to have its space invaded
Kok Sheng and I were trying to figure out what that slimy thing is. I guessed it was a type of sponge but he thought otherwise. Till now we're still making our guesses haha

This is the soft coral Dendronephthea sp.
Its about the size of a soccer ball to put things in perspective

Here's what it looks like inside the big white brocolli

Ahha here's the "onch" which caused quite a commotion
Ria was like "I don't care how big it is. Its an onch!"
Kinda scary looking huh

More Palythoa sp. on a rock. I saw my first small colony of these guys and was so happy until I continued walking on and got to know that they are everywhere!!

And being part of TeamSeagrass, how can I miss the main focus
Our dear old Halophila ovalis

Came across this when checking out the site with Kok Sheng. Is this a cause for concern?

And finally, a view of the Tuas shoreline with the volunteers at work

I'll try to post the rest of the pictures tomorrow
Till then,
God Bless