New signs of life on Changi Beach

Right after a three day Leafmonkey workshop "Walking with Nature at SOTA", some of us only had a few hours of sleep before we head out for another session with nature. The only difference is that we do not see people, but marine animals on our intertidal shores. The location: Changi Beach.
The stretch of shore we covered on this trip is full of new life. I came across so many juvenile animals such as this seagrass pipefish. You can tell how small it is by comparing the pipefish with the size of the spoon seagrass (Halophila ovalis).

Juvenile seagrass pipefish

I came across another juvenile seagrass pipefish later.

The beauty of Pulau Hantu

Many people will relate 'Hantu' as the Malay word for ghost and hence the island Pulau Hantu is literally referred to as "Ghost Island". The island is actually far from the spooky tales and myths of restless spirits or ghosts.

Pulau Hantu looks tiny compared to its refinery neighbour, Pulau Bukom.
Image from Google earth.

The whole of Pulau Hantu is formed by two separate "Hantu" islets - Hantu Besar (Big Ghost) and Hantu Kechil (Little Ghost).

Drone-ing Kusu Island

Located on one of Singapore's southern islands is this beautiful jetty and Chinese temple.

Panoramic view of the jetty

Chinese Temple

Where am I?

Northern Beauty of Semakau

It was my first time checking the northern reef of Semakau. It was also the team's first time covering the whole reef of Semakau through a team effort.

Pink line marks the reef coverage the team covered on this trip.

Another team check the submerged reef next to Semakau's western reef, Terumbu Raya.

A new year, a new life on Chek Jawa

The new year marks the start of a slow progression towards intertidal fieldtrips as the low tide period starts to get lower and shifts from evening low tides to morning low tides. It is a great feeling to be back on the shore again, after about 1.5 months break due to the unfavourable low tides since mid November last year.

The first intertidal fieldtrip of 2014 begins at Chek Jawa. With heavy rain pouring almost daily throughout November to December and the eastern part of peninsular Malaysia being hit by floods, we were worried if Chek Jawa will be affected by large amount of freshwater flowing down the Johor river. Chek Jawa is located on the eastern end of Pulau Ubin where discharge from the nearby Johor River is directed at.

Location of Johor River mouth.

Cephaly, Fidderly and Tape Flowery at Semakau

It was a rather hot day today as we journey to Pulau Semakau for another intertidal survey session. The team had visited this part of the shore a few months ago on National Day.

We passed by quite close to the fish farm next to Semakau. There is a barge right next to the fish farm loaded with stacks of bags which may be fish food. On the barge (right side on the photo), there seems to be a large rectangular metal container used for incinerating things. I could see smoke coming out of the rectangular container and smelled something being burnt.

Anchored barge with stacks of white sacks.

Neatly constructed shelter

Marine animals crowd at Tanah Merah on a beautiful sunset

Tanah Merah has one of few quiet hidden shores tucked away from the hustle and bustle of urban pace.
It is surprising to see how well the Ribbon seagrass (Cymodocea rotundata) has settled very well on this shore and is expanding its coverage area.

Spread of Ribbon seagrass
[Photo by Ria Tan]

The Ribbon seagrass on this shore is so thick that they form a thick seagrass carpet when the tide goes down has the strap-like grass blades fall and intertwined with each other.

Owl, snakes and spiders at Pasir Ris Mangrove Boardwalk

It was a great trip with the Naked Hermit Crabs at Pasir Ris Mangrove Boardwalk. After a long break from Pasir Ris, the guided decided to conduct a free guided walk during this September school holidays. Despite a small group everyone saw amazing animals in this short 1 hour walk.

Located with a short walk for Pasir Ris Park Carpark C is a patch of replanted mangrove that has flourished along the banks of Sungei Tampines, and even on the coastline near the river mouth.

The visitors were looking forward to spotting animals as they entered the nearest entrance to the mangrove boardwalk. Little did they know that an golden orb spider is looming just above their parents' head.

Golden orb spider

Amazing reef at Pulau Semakau's northern shore

Pulau Semakau, the island where many people know it as a landfill island being filled up by ash of incinerated rubbish disposed by us on Mainland Singapore. Not many people are aware of the flora and fauna beauty of Semakau. On the western side of this landfill island is an intertidal beauty consisting of mangrove trees, seagrass and coral reef along the reef edge.

Map of Semakau Lanfill and nearby submerged reefs.
[Google map by Ria Tan]

The shoreline is pretty long. You can probably walk the whole shore within the intertidal period if you only focus on the walking aspect, do nothing but walk.

Huge sea star and orange flatworm at Chek Jawa

Exactly one month ago,  a small team of us visited Chek Jawa for an intertidal survey trip. During that trip, we covered the Eastern and Northeastern part of Chek Jawa. You can read about my sightings from my earlier post about that trip.

Today we visited Chek Jawa again for another intertidal survey, but we started from the Southern side (in front of House No. 1) and worked our way towards the Chek Jawa front beacon.

Chek Jawa Front beacon

We started off by checking the pillars of the jetty in front of House No. 1 at Chek Jawa.

First step on the land of FROG.

Off the southeastern coast of Pulau Ubin sits a little island. During high tide, all you can see are rocks emerging from the splashing waves, and maybe some land. During a very low spring tide, this island reveals its hidden land full of life.

This not-so-little little island is Pulau Sekudu, or Frog Island. There are no frogs congregating on the island (though I think I heard some croaking going on). Pulau Sekudu got its name from a legend. You can read about the legend from this webpage done up by Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research (RMBR).

It was the first time I place my foot on this island. The very first animal that "welcomed" me was an anemone.

Anemone, almost completely retracted.

Snakey and Galloping National Day at Semakau

This morning's trip brings us to a corner of Semakau intertidal area less explored. Some of the team members are excited about this trip because of some special animals that was sighted on this shore. One of them is the Galloping seastar (Stellaster equestris).

I have never seen a galloping seastar before and I was not expecting myself to be the one to find the galloping seastar at Semakau this morning, but I did!

Galloping seastar, overview

Shouting "Galloping!" out loud on the shore, many of the team members came from all directions and distances to see this amazing seastar. Kok Sheng was the fastest walker amongst them all as this was what he was looking forward to on this trip.

New surprises at Cyrene Reef with Large seastar and Cone snail

Cyrene Reef never fails to surprise us. Seated in a major shipping lane surrounded by the container terminal on the mainland and petrochemical plants on two island, there is always something interesting to see during each intertidal trip despite its location.

What a large Astropecten sp. seastar I found trying to burrow itself into the sand. It is as big has my hand!

Size of Astropecten seastar

Shield bugs, and Monkey and Wild Boar business at Chek Jawa

After a busy series of biodiversity event happening around Singapore in June and July, I am back guiding with the Naked Hermit Crabs at Chek Jawa for the month of August.

As usual, the wild boar troop graciously welcome visitors to Chek Jawa.

Wild boar piglets have grown so big.

Wow! The wild boar piglets have grown so big. I still fondly remember them small and cute with watermelon stripes on their body.

My first Chek Jawa intertidal survey trip

'If music be the food of love, play on.' - Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare

It is not the sound of love when many mosquitos were buzzing close to my ears throughout the intertidal survey trip at Chek Jawa. This trip has got to be the earliest intertidal survey trip I had ever embarked on. The mosquitos were not the only organisms expressing their "love" to me. My nose was also expressing its "love" to me as I sniff, sniff, sniff and even more sniffing throughout the whole time I was on the shore.

My nose and the mosquitos may be hindering my attention span on the shore, but my vision did not fail me. On my very first intertidal survey trip on Chek Jawa, there are many interesting critters to be seen.

Reaching the shore at about 2am, the tide was still quite high for the coral rubble area to be exposed. We began our survey by checking the pillars that supports the boardwalk along the coast. It was full of life.

There were plenty of these tube structures weaved on the pillar surfaces, which I think are worm tubes.

Worm tubes?

Special shrimp and parchment worm at Changi

What a pretty shrimp found on a Haddon's carpet anemone (Stichodactyla haddoni). According to Marcus Ng, it is Ancyclomenes holthuisi.

Ancyclomenes holthuisi

This shrimp was found on the very last carpet anemone that I was checking on for the usual Five-spot anemone shrimp (Periclimenes brevicarpalis) today at Changi Beach. Even Ria was intrigued by this special shrimp.

Surprises at East Coast

There were at least 5 Basket stars spotted on pretty Sea fans on the shore along East Coast Park beach this morning.

Basket star on pink sea fan.

If you think that the beach along East Coast Park is plain and just full of sand, perhaps this blog post might change your perspective.

Masked Burrowing Crab and Special Snail at sandy Changi

A female Masked burrowing crab (Gomeza sp.) with eggs was found at Changi during the Comprehensive Marine Biodiversity Surevy (CMBS) Northern Expedition held last October. This special crab was sighted today at the exact location. In fact, the team found 6 of them!

Masked burrowing crab

As the common name suggests, the Masked burrowing crab burrows and stay in the sand. It is difficult to spot the crab when it is burrowed. However the crabs were out in laying motionless on the sand and seagrass patches. What was the reason for this strange behaviour?

Seastars, Sea Cucumber, Seahorse and interesting Flatworm at less hazy Changi

A team head out for Changi shore this morning with haze condition of about 89 on a 3hr PSI.

What is so special about this part of Changi shore would be the hard-to-spot-at-first Armoured sea cucumber.

Armoured sea cucumber

The Armoured sea cucumber is easily overlooked as ascidian or hard coral. Covered with silt, it blends in very well on the silt covered surface and looked just like any other blobs. Only when the first Armoured sea cucumber is spotted, the rest appear magically.

Giant Clam and Handsome Shrimp at Pulau Hantu

It was a great day at Pulau Hantu this morning. The team found about 5 giant clams growing on the outer reef patch!

Photo by Kok Sheng on his Facebook.

However I only see one giant clam with the help of Marcus.

Giant clam, with my size 8 booties as size reference.