The Blue Tempeh

In search of Bluey...

2008-09-24T13:43:00.005+08:00

Bluey is an absolute STAR! A SEAstar, that is. A knobbly one at that too! This is Bluey:

Bluey was adopted by the Blue Water Volunteers (BWV) on the 9th August during the IYOR 2008 celebrations:

On 19th August, Applecow and I went in search of Bluey on the extensive flat of the patch reef on Cyrene! We found and flagged >100 knobbly seastars on Cyrene that day (and were made honorary star trackers!!)...AND LOOOKIE HERE!!!! Have we found Bluey?? Sure looks like Bluey doesn't it???

It's Bluey, isn't it?! Look at those cute bumps, cute brown patterns! It's BLUEY!!!........Isn't it?? Well, according to Chim Chee Kong of Star Trackers, who is monitoring the body growth, survivorship, habitat utilization and movement patterns of knobbly seastar (Protoreaster nodosus) individuals at marine habitats in Singapore, it's NOT! BOOHOOOO!!!

Oh well, the search continues!!

(Yes, the fried tempeh is back...for now!)

Singapore Sightings! DOLPHINS & DUGONGS!

2006-05-22T17:59:00.000+08:00

One day, I went to cut my hair. I know it seems like this has nothing to do with Dolphins or Dugongs in Singapore, but just read on for a bit. SO! One day, I went to cut my hair. And while chatting with the hairdresser, I found out that she liked the sea as much as I do. I told her about my studying marine biology and she started to tell me about her snorkling trips and beach/sea holidays. She told me how she loves dolphins and how she went ALL THE WAY to Australia just to see dolphins in the wild! She recounted to me the way the dolphins were breaching and jumping out of the water and how they were so elegant and cute and wonderful and just so lovable. You could see she was getting quite excited because she kept waving her comb and scissors randomly above my head, trying to reenact the the dolphin movements. Frankly, I rather feared for the end result of my haircut. But it WAS Mahogany (there was a good student deal back then!), and I guess it would have been OK with me if my new haircut was a dolphin inspired one...

Then I told her. I told her, that just that last week, I had seen a port of dolphins off Sisters' islands, a couple of Singapore's southern islands. Silence. No more frantic scissor-comb combos. Then she pointed the comb at me and said accusingly, "YOU BRUFF ME, RIGHT! Singapore water where got dolphins want to come and stay!"

"GOOOOOOOTTTT!!!!" I replied. It was my turn to recount that fateful day when I saw my first port of dolphins in Singapore while she, thankfully, continued to cut my hair. And so we chatted and chatted. And she cut and cut. And when I was done with my stories about what else I've seen in Singapore waters, she was done with the best hair cut I've ever had!

I have NEVER EVER liked any haircut anyone has given me. I would always think that something was wrong somewhere and would continue hating it for another few weeks or so. But not with this one. It was REALLY REALLY great. Well, at least I thought it was really great anyway. For once, I was HAPPY with the haircut right from the start. That was in mid 2004. Two years and many dolphin sightings later, I still have the same hairstyle and my hairdresser is pregnant and telling me how she can't wait to show her kids dolphins.

Anyway, what I was trying to share with you is, in not so many words, Singapore waters is also home to DOLPHINS! More stories of dolphin sightings HERE. The most common dolphin we have here in our waters is the Indo-Pacific Hump-backed dolphins (Sousa Chinensis). Also known as the Pink Dolphin, Chinese White Dolphin, White Dolphin, Borneon White Dolphin, Lead-coloured Dolphin etc. Despite their varied colouration and common names, these dolphins are considered to belong to the same species of Indo-Pacific Hump-backed dolphins.

The Hump-backed dolphins usually occur in groups of ~3-8 animals, but aggregations of >20 has been seen before. These dolphins are shyer than their relative the Bottlenose dolphins, but they can be playful; breaching, slapping surface with their flippers or flukes, lifting heads clear of the water etc. They're also shy of boats, and do not "ride" alongside boats. Little is known about their reproduction, but gestation period has been suggested to be from 10-12 mths. They prey mainly on species that live on or near the ocean bottom and are associated with reefs or brackish waters of estuaries - including small fish, squid & octopus. (content taken from the "Guide to marine Mammals of the World" by the National Audubon Society)

Hump-backed dolphins do not usually get stranded. These dolphins are known to make their home in shallow waters over mudflats and reef flats, even entering mangroves and is said to be able to hump its way over mudbanks to deeper waters should it get stranded (Sigurdsson & Yang, 1990).

DOLPHIN CARCASS AT MARINA SOUTH

So, it was a rather interesting situation we found ourselves in when, after dinner last night, Zeehan got a phone call alerting us of a dolphin carcass beached up along the Marina South breakwater. It had been a long day already by then, what with Reef Friends survey dive at Semakau (currents, bad visibility, rain, thunder, lightning, confusion), and a pigging out session at NYDC. But upon hearing the news of the dolphin carcass, we (Zeehan, myself, Abby and Safia) got excited and rallied down to the Lab to put together a dolphin carcass "investigation" kit before heading down to the Carcass Scene. Our CSI (Carcass Scene Investigation) kit included torches, sample bottles (for tissue samples), alcohol, bags, face masks, a guide book, booties, knife and Abby's perfume (we expected the worst for carcass stench - which was not really that much in the end).

The dolphin carcass

Notice the ribs of the dolphin sticking out of the long cut from its side (just behind the visible flipper).

Here is and account by Zeehan of the dolphin carcass find:
"We arrived at about 8pm at Marina South and the tide was rising. The dolphin was fast being covered by the incoming tide. Dr Chua, Ashley and Jani took photographs. The beak of the carcass caused it to be lodged amongst the rocks at the breakwater. It looked like a female carcass (1.8m from beak to tail) of the Indo Pacific Humpback Dolphin with a long longitudinal (down from forelimb to tail) laceration on its ventral (front) side. It was most likely hit by a boat propeller. It was also very decomposed, hardly any blubber or tissue left but not very smelly. We dislodged the beak and took more photos. The lower jaw was broken and all meat/tissue was already gone from the beak. Some ribs were jutting out of the frame and many superficial lacerations all over the body especially on the head (as pointed out by May Li) but these could be due to the carcass being tossed about by the waves. The initial plan was to salvage whatever we could especially tissue sample but the carcass was badly decomposed, probably more than a week and the tissue integrity would have been poor. In the event that the carcass is fresh, it would be a great opportunity to obtain tissue samples as RMBR (Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research) is setting up a tissue bank."

Zeehan trying to dislodge the dolphin from the breakwater and straighten it up for its length measurement.

From beak to tail: ~1.8m.

The Hump-backed dolphins (Sousa chinensis) are not the only kind of dolphins that have been sighted in Singapore. Other dolphins such as the Bottle-nosed dolphin (Turniops truncatus) and the Irrawady dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris) have also been occassionally sighted in our waters. Other marine mammals sighted in Singapore waters include the Finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides) and the DUGONG (Dugong dugon).

DUGONG IN SINGAPORE!

In fact, just LAST WEDNESDAY (18 May 2006), a dugong was sighted at Chek Jawa. A contractor for the board walk being constructed at Chek Jawa had reported seeing a dugong surfacing while at work. This report is an exciting one since it's been some time since the last live sighting of a dugong (1998)! Villagers who used to live by the coasts of Pulau Ubin said that they would often get "visits" from families of dugongs. It's not surprising since P. Ubin has one of the last standing crops of seagrasses, the food of the dugongs. Sadly, however, the contractor also mentioned that he saw some sort of net around the dugong's neck.

WHALES?
Although there are no records of any whales sighted in Singapore, there has been a whalebone whale reported from Singapore waters (Sigurdsson & Yang, 1990). Although there are no official records, Mr. Loh, our trusty bumboat-man, has related to us how one fine day long time ago when we was younger, he saw a WHALE of a shadow (pun intended) next to his boat as he was driving his boat around Singapore waters. The animal, whose shadow indicated that it was as big as the bumboat, did not breach the surface but stayed alongside the boat for some time before disappearing. Mr. Loh also recounted how he had felt very nervous for himself and his boat (for which he had taken a loan from his dad to pay).

Link to the Habitatnews blog for more dolphin sightings (with stories, photos and video):
DOLPHIN SIGHTINGS

ALSO SIGHTED LAST WEDNESDAY (18 MAY 2006): DUGONG (Dugong dugon) AT CHEK JAWA!!!

Diving in Singapore: A tribute part II

2006-04-13T00:43:00.000+08:00

Hundreds of dives in Singapore reefs and still wanting more. I've dived in "world-class" dive sites and, sure, they are amazing in their own rights. But I can bet you, nothing beats the thrill of diving in my own backyard.

I don't know what compelled Sydney Chew, president of AQUOS Pte Ltd and apparent project leader of Project NOAH to say that there are only TWO DIVE SITES in Singapore open to the public (during the NSS Conservation Chat last night)! Here I present you otherwise. ENJOY! DIVE IN!

Pulau Hantu
Pulau Hantu’s reefs have been known to hold rich marine life, with many new records of nudibranchs and gobies currently being found there. Currently, 2 x 100m stretches of Pulau Hantu’s reefs are being surveyed and monitored by the Blue Water Volunteers (BWV) since 2003. The Marine Biology Laboratory (National University of Singapore) also does biennial surveys of fixed monitoring sites at Pulau Hantu. Survey sites are located on the western side of P. Hantu and encompass both the fringing and patch reefs.

The reefs around Pulau Hantu are also probably the most dived by local recreational divers, even being used by dive operators to teach openwater dive courses. This is probably due to P. Hantu’s accessibility and sheltered reefs. It takes only approximately 20 – 30mins by boat to reach P. Hantu from mainland Singapore, and has relatively calm waters on normal days – being surrounded by P. Bukom, P. Busing, P. Ular and a patch reef.

Huge colonies of corals found at the fringing reef of Pulau Hantu

The Hantu Blog has also been running regular dive trips to P. Hantu with aims to spread conservation and education messages about our local reefs. A new programme, Reef Friends Xplore! have also trained dive guides to showcase our local underwater marine life to divers, increase awareness and educate the public about marine conservation issues in Singapore. A collaborative effort between BWV, the Hantu Bloggers and Gilldivers, Reef Friends Xplore! will also cover Kusu Island as another dive site.

SEE MORE PHOTOS OF MARINE LIFE AT PULAU HANTU HERE.

Kusu Island
Unlike P. Hantu, the reefs of Kusu Island are not as well known to recreational divers. This is probably due to the time taken to reach it from mainland Singapore (45 – 60min) by boat, and its exposed reefs – waves can reach well over 1m in bad weather or windy conditions during the northeast monsoon. Currently, BWV and the Marine Biology Laboratory (NUS) are monitoring a 100m stretch of reef at the northeastern side of Kusu Island using Reef Check (www.reefcheck.org) and Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) Line Intercept Transect (LIT) (www.aims.gov.au).

This island is open to public and divers who have had the opportunity to visit Kusu Island’s reefs have commented on its rich marine life and uniqueness. Kusu Island’s shallow reefs are home one of the highest densities of anemones and anemonefishes known in Singapore. Deeper, 2m-wide seafans have been observed. Kusu Island is part of the Saint John’s group of islands that has been designated as a Marine Nature Area in 1996 under the care of Sentosa Leisure Group, administered by the National Parks Board, with the Police coast guard providing some enforcement.

Just between you and me, Kusu is my favourite dive site. Interestingly enough, I had a short dive there just last week with a new dive buddy. Upon surfacing, he commented on what rich life he saw, and said that he saw more things at Kusu than when he went to Aur/Dayang/Tioman! Oddly enough too, I had another dive buddy who said the exact thing some time back during his first dive there!

SEE MORE PHOTOS OF MARINE LIFE AT KUSU ISLAND HERE.

Pulau Jong
Pulau Jong is a tiny island (<1 hectare or 0.01km²) with an extensive cigar-shaped reef that covers an area more than six times its landmass. Due to its location and size, P. Jong’s reefs can experience strong and tricky currents of up to 3 knots, and choppy waters in bad weather conditions and during the monsoon season. It is, however, dive-able in the right conditions and time. BWV has also been monitoring a 100m stretch of reef at the eastern side of P. Jong since 2004 using Australian Institute of Marine Science Line Intercept Transect and Reef Check methods.

Doryrhamphus janssi, a new record of pipefish found at Pulau Jong late last year

Although survey results did not indicate high live coral cover (data published on the Coral Reef of Singapore website, coralreef.nus.edu.sg, it was observed to have rich fish life. Black-tip reef sharks and schools of parrotfishes, which have rarely been seen on other reefs in Singapore, have recently been recorded there. In 2005, a new record of pipefish has also been found there. It has been observed that away at the southeastern end of P. Jong’s reefs, live coral cover is higher than what has been surveyed by BWV. P. Jong is also the last untouched island and coastline in Singapore, unlike P. Hantu and Kusu Island that have been reclaimed in the 1970s and 1980s respectively. Due to this, BWV is planning to survey more sites around the reefs of P. Jong.

SEE MORE PHOTOS OF MARINE LIFE AT PULAU JONG HERE.

OTHER DIVE SITES AROUND SINGAPORE

Saint John's Island
Open to public, Saint John's reefs hold underwater many gems. Currents here can be from mild to mad, depending on the timing and the site that you dive at (as for all reefs found in Singapore, timing is important). However, some parts of Saint John's can be divable at all times (currents are mild, if any). Photos of marine life found at Saint John's HERE.
Coral reef monitoring done by Marine Biology Lab, NUS.

Lazarus Island
Located just next to and connected to Saint John's Island via a land bridge, Lazarus's reefs hold interesting surprises despite the extent of which it has been reclaimed. See blog entry about Lazarus. More photos of Lazarus HERE.
Coral reef surveys done by Marine Biology Lab, NUS.

Pulau Semakau
Open to the public as a recreational nature area since 2005, P. Semakau has one of the largest extents of seagrass and reefs in Singapore. P. Semakau not only has a fringing reef, but also 2 patch reefs off its western side. Things like the elusive Barramundi cod has been seen here before in addition to razor fishes, sweetlips, pipefishes, nudibranchs and many more. Photos from a BWV survey trip HERE.
Coral reef surveys done by 1)Marine Biology Lab, NUS and 2) BWV.

Sisters' Islands
Also open to public, these islands are part of the designated Marine Nature Area in Singapore. Huge seafans and many seawhips can be found aplenty here.
Coral reef surveys done by 1)Marine Biology Lab, NUS and 2)BWV.

Labrador reef
A nature reserve, one can dive at Labrador reef. However, dive training is not allowed to be conducted here under NParks regulations. As a nature reserve, collection of any sorts is not allowed within Labrador. Collecting/harming any organism within the park carries a fine of up to S$50,000 or 6 months imprisonment, or both. Photos HERE. The last official coral reef survey at Labrador was done by the Marine Biology Lab, NUS in 1998.

Pulau Salu
Open to divers on the weekends, divers have spotted things like nurse sharks and reef sharks here before. Supposedly high in live coral cover, I personally have not dived here before. Blog entries of diving at P. Salu HERE and some photos HERE.

Sheltered, exposed, macro-life, large fishes... Singapore's dive sites vary in what they have to offer. Each island, as a dive site, holds unique characteristics. I can personally say I sometimes am spoilt for choice. Yes, our visibility might not be as good as Hawaii, but Singapore has life, variety, DIVERSITY. Our visibility ranges from <1m to 6m, and on good days, you'd be surprised to SEE what you SEE. It might be murky at times, but under that murkiness hides a myriad of marine life that we should treasure and nurture! As a million other people have probably said before, Singapore is not Manado or some world-class dive site, Singapore might not be perfect...but this is our home. These dive sites/islands/reefs I have shared with you do not have clear waters with 20m visibility around them, but these are the homes of our coral reefs and the fishes and other animals that live in them. We should embrace them, and nurture them, and protect them, so that our coral reefs can flourish for all to see.

RESTRICTED DIVE SITES

Cyrene reef
A patch reef in the middle of busy shipping traffic. Photos HERE

Buran reef
Also a patch reef in the middle of shipping traffic. GREAT GREAT reef. Photos HERE.

Pulau Tekukor
Administered by Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC), P. Tekukor is not open to public (yet, I hope). Some photos of reef at P. Tekukor HERE.

Raffles Lighthouse
Raffles Lighthouse or P. Satumu used to be open to public. Security and safety issues has made it a restricted area. Raffles Lighthouse's reefs has one of the highest live coral cover in Singapore. Monitored by BWV as well as the Marine Biology Lab, NUS, this site is full of colour and life! Nurse sharks, reef sharks, large groupers, schools of fishes, nudibranchs, crabs, shrimps, crinoids... pretty much FULL of LIFE. See photos HERE. Corals here have also been monitored for the MASS SPAWNING event.

P. Sudong, P. Senang & P. Pawai
Owned by MINDEF these islands are not open to the public. The wreck at Sudong has been a dive locale for some time, but the reefs around the island have not really been explored before.

P. Biola
Also another MINDEF island not allowed for diving by public, this island hold an extensive reef flat.

Sedimentation associated with land reclamation and sea-bed dredging is one of the highest threats to Singapore's reefs right now. Having said that, we experience no damaging fishing methods (e.g. blast fishing, trawlling) and minimal physical damage from other activities (trampling, anchoring etc). Our reefs do not suffer from outbreaks of coral diseases or crown-of-thorns seastar, and our geographic location shelters our reefs from storms and other natural events. Although affected by the global mass bleaching event of 1998, that coincided with the El Nino, up to 75% of our bleached corals recovered within a year. No further mass bleaching events have been reported.

Our marine environment is still very rich just where they are. If we take care of the corals that we have right now, and take measures/steps to nurture them, we might just be able to conserve and protect them for our children and our children's children to experience.

WANT TO DIVE IN SINGAPORE?
See REEF FRIENDS XPLORE!, the HANTU BLOG, GILLDIVERS and MORE!

A tribute to Singapore's coral reefs. PART 1.

2006-02-25T15:33:00.001+08:00

It's been a year and a half since I started this blog, which actually began as a personal blog. But since my life practically revolves around coral reefs, diving and my work... well, you can see where I'm going with this. So this blog entry will be a tribute to the coral reefs that has given me so much since I started diving 4 years ago...

Coral Reefs of Singapore
Singapore once consisted of over 60 offshore islands and patch reefs, most of which are situated south of mainland Singapore. Land reclamation combined with coastal development, which began in the 1960s, has since drastically changed Singapore’s coastlines and islands. Singapore’s 268km coastline has been extended seawards - especially on the eastern, northeastern and western parts of the island, while most of her southern islands were reclaimed, merging some islands to form larger ones in the process (Chou, 2001). Singapore’s current combined land area stands at about 690km², a >10% increase from her original size.

Singapore currently supports one of the world's busiest ports and one of the largest oil refining centers. However, this has not been without a great expense on Singapore’s natural resources, including her coral reefs. About 60% of the total coral reef areas in Singapore have been lost through foreshore reclamation (Chou, 1995; Chou & Goh, 1998). The reef flats of many islands e.g. Pulau Sudong, Pulau Hantu and Kusu Island were reclaimed right up to the reef slope. Many of the coral reef organisms were smothered by the reclamation, while others were severely affected by the resulting increase in water turbidity.

Characteristic thick layer of silt over our reefs

Results of the monitoring programme since 1987 show live coral cover of Singapore’s remaining reefs declining with both increasing depth and over time (Chou, 2001, data published on Coral Reef of Singapore website). Hermatypic corals generally do not occur beyond the 6m depths due to the high sediment load and high turbidity in the water that restrict light penetration. Hermatypic corals have symbiotic zooxanthallae (algae), living within the coral tissues, which provide up to 90% of food for the corals through photosynthesis. Sedimentation rates ranged from 3 – 6mg cm^-2 day^-1 in 1979 but increased to 5 – 45mg cm^-2 day^-1 in 1994 (Low & Chou, 1994). The higher was value obtained from localised areas close to land reclamation projects. This reduced visibility from 10m in the 1960s to 2m or less today (Chou, 1996). As a consequence, the reef is very compact, as opposed to reefs in clear waters, which can be found at depths of 20m and more.

Rubble covered with silt - characteristic of Singapore's reefs as well. Seen here are also coral recruits (young/juvenile corals) indicating that there is still potential for our reefs to recover given the right conditions.

While live coral cover in most localities declined steadily, some localities have even suffered close to 100% loss in coral cover. This is attributed to their proximity to sedimentation-generating activities such as dumping of dredged spoils and reclamation respectively (Chou, 2001). According to Reefs at Risk (2001), Singapore’s reefs cover an approximate area of 54km². However, this figure is now thought to be an over-estimation and that the actual combined reef area left in Singapore is actually less.

Despite this loss in live coral cover, our reefs still support rich marine life. Singapore’s reefs still harbour 197 species of hard corals from 55 genera, comparable to nearby reefs of Thailand, Philippines and Malaysia (Lim & Chou, 1991). This is quite encouraging if one were to compare the extensive reefs found in the region and the size of the remaining reefs found in Singapore. This is probably due to Singapore’s locale: we are situated in southeast Asia and near the ‘Coral Triangle’, an area known to have the world’s highest coral reef biodiversity (Allen, 2000).

Reefs of P. Hantu (2006)

Reefs of P. Jong (2005)

Our reefs also still support over 20 species of soft corals, 130 species of fishes from 30 families, 250 species of mollusks, 30 species of echinoderms, 30 species of algae and over 800 species of crustaceans (Shoo, 2004; Chou & Tun, unpublished data). In addition, new records of various organisms have recently been discovered in Singapore waters.

Doryrhamphus janssi. New record of pipefish found on reefs of P. Jong in Nov 2005.

Amblyleotris pariophthalma. New record of goby found on reefs of P. Hantu in Feb 2006.

Numerous new records of nudibranchs, or more commonly known as sea slugs and much loved by divers worldwide, are being found on the reefs around Pulau Hantu. There have also been new records of fishes found just in the past year (2005) alone, and a suspect new record for hard corals. These new records suggest that there is still much not known of Singapore’s reefs that holds hope for these gems in our own backyard.

References

Allen, G.R. 2000. Indo-Pacific coral-reef fishes as indicators of conservation hotspots. Proceedings of the 9th International Coral Reef Symposium, Bali, Indonesia.

Chou, L. M. 1995. Effects to conserve Singapore marine and coastal ecosystems. Malaysian Institute of Maritime Affairs (MIMA) Seminar, March 1995.

Chou, L. M. and Goh, B. P. L. 1998. Singapore coral reefs – balancing development and conservation. In: B. Morton (Ed.) Marine Biology of the South China Sea, Proceedings of the Third International Conference on the Marine Biology of the South China Sea, 28 Oct – 1 Nov 1996, Hong Kong. Hong Kong University Press, pp. 355-368.

Chou, L. M. 2001. Country report: Singapore. International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI).

Low, J. K. Y. and Chou, L. M. 1994. Sedimentation rates in Singapore waters. Proceedings of Third ASEAN-Australian Symposium on Living Coastal Resources 2: 697 – 701.

Shoo, J. 2004. Investigating the biodiversity of coral reef in southern islands of Singapore. BSc dissertation, Department of Biological Sciences, National Univesity of Singapore.

RF Xplore! explores Pulau Hantu...

2006-02-21T21:29:00.000+08:00

Right! Am BACK in the waters! After what Siva calls a hiatus. Heh, well, to see what I've been UP to (pun intended), my SO non-marine escapade, take a look HERE

Well, how it began was like this: It was another Reef Friends XPlore! training dive, and this time round, we were going to have familirisation dives for the guides at Pulau Hantu's western reefs (fringing AND patch).

What was that you asked? Reef Friends Xplore!? Well, sorry pardon me for not explaining earlier...

Reef Friends Xplore! is actually a new local waters dive guiding programme. A collaborative effort between BWV, the Hantu Bloggers and Gilldivers, Reef Friends Xplore! aim to better showcase our local underwater marine life to divers, increase awareness and educate the public about marine conservation issues in Singapore.

Currently, training is still ongoing for the volunteer dive guides for this programme. See the action during our training dives and classroom sessions HERE!

Anyway, back on track, let me... tell you... the MOST EXCITING dive I've had this 2006! Well, have not had THAT many dives this year yet, but MAN! WHAT A WAY TO START THE YEAR!!! LOOK AT THAT!!!!!

BETSY THE BIG HAWSKBILL TURTLE! (we just named here Betsy because she was aunty-like)

I was just diving along with Wai, my buddy for the day, and she was taking FOREVER filming this little sap sucking slug (related to you nudibranch). So, I went on ahead for a bit on my on... you know... recce the area a bit. Wai had brought along URSULA, the WILD FILMS video camera, so it was choice time to try find something cool to video...

Sap sucking slug!

So I went on ahead and WHAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Her CARAPACE was about 1m! From head to tail, she was about 1.5m!

IT WAS SOOOOO COOOOLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH MY GAWD!!! I MEAN! WHAT LUCK RIGHT! But... Wai took literally FOREVER to film that slug and she was left with only FIVE MINUTES on her tape!! WHAT THE....!

ARGH! We stayed with her for quite some time... watching her... taking photos... filming... it was SO COOL! She even let us get close to her... but as any good divers, we did not touch her and moved very slowly and purposefully around her. In the end, when she's had enough of us, she sloowwlly sauntered away... leaving us to go hide under another boulder further up...

We found her a second time, and decided to call more people to see her... but she's smart that Betsy! She was probably thinking "Oh no.... not again... those girls are going to call more huummaannnss.... I got to mooovvveeee away agaiinn...."

She moved... and we moved on too... and WHAM BAM!!!! HIT ANOTHER JACKPOT!!!

CUTTLEFISH MATING!

MAN! WHAT A DIVE! But.... by this time, there was no more tape left in the video camera!!! ARGH!! We stayed and watch the couple for some time and let them go about their business...AMAZING...

And then we encountered MORE!

AN OCTOPUS!

Huimin spotted this little beauty's eyes just popping out of the silt... MAN! Her eyes are SHARP! Spotting small little nudibranchs and critters! More of her photos HERE.

And ALSO found at HANTU is a NEW RECORD of GOBY for Singapore!

Ambleyleotris paraphthalma

Goatfish commonly found foraging for food on the sea floor of P. Hantu...

Not only were there a LOT of stuff found on the seabed, the colours and critters found around the shallower parts of the reefs are really just AMAZING too!

Foliose corals!

False anemonefish

Jerona funebris

Cushion star

After so many dives at Hantu, the reefs still manage to surprise and surprise and surprise... AMAZING STUFF! And the GREAT VIS of 3.5 - 4m WAS JUST AMAZING! Let so much light and brought out such colours in the reef! Wow... What a great way to start a new year of diving! Heh...

See more photos HERE and Howard Lee's photos HERE.

Forty winks and more!

2005-11-24T20:22:00.000+08:00

So. You probably already know that I love taking photos of wonderful critters we find in our very own local waters, while diving or in the intertidal areas. I'll let you in on a little secret. I have a second mission on these trips:

Ria changing after walk at Semakau!

Yeps. Catching people doing odd things on these trips. Hur hur. (AND RIA, YOU THOUGHT IT WAS TOO LATE TO POST THIS UP, DIDN'T YOU! Ho ho ho)

Sleeping is one of the basic essentials of life. The Wildfilms crew is trained to sleep ANYTIME and ANYWHERE. The ReefWalkers enjoy their quick doze on the boat to Kusu Island. Same goes for the local divers! Enjoy this series of photos just for you!
Oh, and a nifty bit of info: Zeehan can doze off ANYWHERE ANYTIME in just under 30 seconds. Trust me. We TIMED it.

Angeline after dawn walk: Without raincover!

Angeline after dawn walk: With raincover!!!

Alvin...Live example of Wildfilms crew in action!

Ivy and Hanpeng: Local divers, Wildfilms crew...and a very cute couple! (they were nodding off in the same direction haha!)

Jeffrey Low: AHAH! CAUGHT YA! I love this photo hahaha!!

Mudskipper boat crew: Ishak, or better known as SHARQ the strong man

Wai: Wildfilms crew...well protected againts the elements...AND AND AND

Wai: I CAUGHT HER FILING HER NAILS on the way back from our dive trip! Haha!

But my proudest achievement so far has GOT to be THIS:

Daniel: MBL dive buddy...Hard day's work after a long night of soccer.

HAHAHA! OK OK... it WAS a tag team effort with Marco. It took AMAZING effort for us not to just keel over and die of laughter when Daniel woke up.

Will be back with NORMAL entries soon. Signing off for now and staying dry until mid December.

Jong: DIVE OF THE YEAR!

2005-10-29T16:35:00.000+08:00

'Nuff said. DIVE OF THE YEAR. The dive that TOPS it all... Today we dived at this small little island called JONG. Pulau Jong.

Have ALWAYS wanted to dive here for leisure... Just keep missing the chance to! The first time I dived here it was love at first sight... corals corals corals... but it was just a reallllyyy realllyyy short recce dive. The second dive I had here was last year, during a BWV Reef Friends Survey. And of course, when you're doing a benthic coral survey, you hardly get to see anything else other than what's beneath the transect tapes!! What with the currents picking up and all (Jong has really strong currents if you go at the wrong time)...

And THIS YEAR, I missed TWO chances to dive at Jong... I missed the RF Survey dive (where they saw 3 black tip reef sharks...wow) 'cos I was ill... AND missed a leisure trip arranged by dive-nazi-Daniel (who said Jong was alright...nothing spectacular... etc...think they weren't as lucky as us...JONG ROCKS!). Determined not to let the last chance for this year I am probably going to get to dive Jong, we arranged a trip out on a fine sunny Saturday to visit the Jong's fine reef (which is coincidentally 5-6 times the size of the actual island!).

Abby and I woke up super early to buy ingredients for our little "picnic" on the boat. The night before, we were in the lab till past midnight. Both of us got barely any sleep, and I kept waking up every hour on the hour 'cos I keep dreaming I was late for the dive!! The excitement was building...

The logistics went all good and well that fine morning... And we got Mr Loh's friend's boat that day 'cos Mr Loh has been pre-booked by the Hantu Blog, who were also out for a dive that day!

Mr Loh's friend! I call him James Bond no. 2. He drove his boat right into us at the marina!

On the boat...

After what seemed like an awfully SLOW ride (I had a feeling James Bond no.2 didn't really know his way to Jong), we finally reached! The water looked SO inviting and promised good visibility.

Pulau Jong...from the surface

And we weren't disappointed... the vis was a great 3.5 - 4m and the marine live AMAZING!!!

OK I will do this systematically...we went down with the aim of helping zeehan survey her gobies. So off we went to the deeper parts looking for seawhips and silty areas where gobies like to hang out... I was suppose to be taking photo records of the gobies while Zee accounts for the species seen. Of course, along the way, we get distracted... by...

ALL THE NUDIBRANCHS!!!!!!!!!!!! This one was a baby pterollidia...SO ADORABLE! Tiny tiny (compare the nudibranch to the strand of algae next to it)...These were EVERYWHERE...I'm not kidding you...

THERE WERE BABY NUDIBRANCHS EVERYWHERE!!! After some time, I stopped taking photos of them... and stopped telling the rest that there were nudibranchs... it was just SO MANY. I think I stopped counting after like 20... BABY ONES... ADULT ONES.. BIG FAT JUICY ONES...

Baby Phyllidia pustulosa...

Another baby nudibranch! I don't know what this one is though...

Medium-sized Phyllidia ocellata...

Large Phyllid...

BIG FAT JUICY Phyllidia ocellata...

And one on a hydroid!!!

Nudibranchs, as some of you would know, have that bright colouration to warn predators against eating them. Nudibranchs ingest the stinging cells of hydroids that contain toxins, and incorporate these toxins into themselves. This makes them either bad tasting or even poisonous to their predators...

Even a giant polyclad flatworm, draping itself over a sponge!

Still, I managed to catch a few goby shots... most of them of the same type of goby... but I DID take goby shots!!

Istigobius goldmanni

The FISH LIFE at Jong was just AMAZING!!! Coupled with the good vis... it was just an amazing AMAZING amazing experience... There were schools of parrotfishes, fusiliers, yellow runners, snappers, rabbitfishes, groupers... we even saw a HUGGEE HUUGGGEEE tuskfish and a HUUUGGEEE grouper (OKlah... about 70-80cm?). THREE different kinds of butterflyfishes: the 8 banded, copper banded and the kite butterfly fish. I have NEVER in my history of diving in Singapore, encountered all these 3 butterflyfishes in the same place before... So it was thoroughly exciting... 3 different species of angelfishes too!

OK I'll just stop raving about it and show you some evidence!

So much fishes on the reef! It was amazing!

The tail end of a school of parrotfish! And the fox-face rabbitfish in the background!

School of fusiliers!

Grazing parrotfishes!

The BIG ASS tuskfish! And check out the snapper caught in the shot!

And the HUGE MEAN-looking GROUPER! CHECK OUT THOSE TEETH MAN!!!! NASTY! (it was deep, it was dark...and I couldn't use flash 'cos of the backscatter...)

Groupers are predators... and are therefore animals higher up in the food chain. Having such predators around is a good indication that the ecosystem is healthy (healthy enough to support animals further up the food chain...). I am not surprised... since they spotted sharks the last time RF did a survey at Jong!!

Underneath this huge Turbinaria coral... was another HUGE Diploastrea heliopora coral colony...and underneath THAT were....

PIPEFISHES!!! JANSS'S PIPEFISHES (YES, it's pronounced as YANS'S, Doryrhamphus janssi) TO BE EXACT!!! NEW SPECIES RECORD FOR SINGAPORE!!! AMAZZINNNGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOOK AT THAT!!! LOOK AT THE COLOURS!!!!

Doryrhamphus janssi. AMAZING... Such bright orange! Didn't know they even existed here!

Zeehan found them in a crevice under the coral... WHY she poked her head in the hole under there one can only wonder... BUT THANK GAWD SHE DID! Even when she pointed them out to me... I couldn't see it... I spent A LOT of time trying to catch a photo that was in FOCUS... those damn pretty things were so thin and squirming about like worms! It was a challenge... I had to nicely lodge myself under the coral... HOLD MY BREATH.. if not my bubbles will cause a rain of sediments and I'll have to wait for a few minutes for the water to clear up before I can manage another shot... BUT IT WAS WORTH IT! WELL WORTH IT... New species record for Singapore.. well worth it...

And Zeehan REALLY does have a pair of very SHARP eyes... she also spotted these!

A shrimp in its burrow... (Periclimenes tenuipes)

This HUGE tiger cowry... it was larger than my hand...I completely swam past it! You can see part of its mantle coming out...

But I wasn't too bad myself... I found THIS:

Gorgonian shrimps! In RED too! There's TWO OF THEM... The female (the larger one) was actually gravid (carrying eggs)! Can you see it....?

The seafans at Jong were also just AMAZING...

A baby feather star on a comb gorgonian (seafan)

Our second dive, we went further out and we found this seafan garden...and this WALL!!! A WALLL... it was SO COOL!! Zeehan calls it an ESCARPMENT...haha... she and her powdeful Engrand...always coming up with cheam names for things! She's right of course, BUT IT WAS SO LIKE A WALL!!!

We were finning along and then VROOP... nothing... but this vertical drop. I don't this we went all the way down... It was almost 3.30pm and Abby needed to be back on mainlan by 4.30pm... (we dived for 2hrs for the first dive... and close to that again for the second one...). Oh I forgot to tell you what happened to our planned "picnic" lunch. It went down the aeosophagus just like that... We decided that time underwater was more important than lunch...

Anyway, back to the "escarpment"... It was just magnificent. It was FULL of seafans... and sea whips... and nudibranchs... and interesting nooks and crannies... And that was where we saw the HUGE A** grouper too...and the yellow lined angelfish (Pomacanthus annularis)... And there were just SCHOOLS of fusiliers ALL ROUND US... They were circling the wall... I was just stunned... It didn't even cross my mind to take a video!!

The view UP from the escarpment...

SERIOUSLY... The whole time... me and zee (we were buddies... if you didn't already realise that...) didn't feel like we were diving in Singapore! It could have been in Manado for all we cared... Manado with a 3.5m visibility! But it was still SO DARN AMAZING! It actually felt quite surreal...

And the coral cover was also equally surprising...

The colonies that were at Jong were just so huge!!

Giant soft coral! I have never seen such big ones in Singapore before!

But as we were diving, we also realised that the reefs of Pulau Jong is not without damage or impact... there was the distinctive silt layer covering what used to be corals, some colonies were bleaching and curiously, a HUGE boulder coral was dislodged and overturned!

Overturned Porites colony...that rolled down the slope and is bleaching...

Some parts of the reef does look like it's been rammed into by something... Singapore has very busy waters, with ships sailing past here and there and everywhere 24/7. But it's sad if they don't take care, and ground onto our reefs... Grounding causes a lot of damage on the ship itself... but it does even MORE damage on the reef on which it grounds! We have so little coral reefs left in Singapore (compared to what it used to be) and every square metre of reef counts in supporting what diverse marine life we still see today... So please, if you're commandeering a ship, TAKE CARE! And if you SEE any ship that has grounded on our reefs, please take a photo and let us know!

Places like Pulau Jong, Pulau Hantu, Saint John's Island and many many more of our southern islands have such rich marine life... don't you think they deserve to be protected? Right now, none of our coral reefs are protected under proper legislation. But if you think they should be, write your views to reefnews@bluewatervolunteers.org. (Read more of the story HERE).

Life...!

See more photos of Pulau Jong HERE.
Also see Jimmy's (Gilldivers) photos HERE.

Island hopping: Saint John's, Lazarus & Semakau!

2005-10-18T21:54:00.000+08:00

After what seems like a really long time, plus a weekend of awful stomach discomforts (stomach flu? food poisoning? both?), it was finally time to DIVE AGAIN! I was getting some serious diving withdrawal symptoms so was REALLY happy to get my fins wet. Plus, the last dive I had just ROCKED!

Today we had to just RUSH everything (although there was still time to spare for looking around a bit. hehe.) because there was a guide training trip to Semakau at 4.30pm! I wasn't sure whether we'd make it... BUT WE DID! And really glad that we did too! I thought I really wouldn't be able to go, but I MADE IT. Rushed and rushed and ran and ran, even had to leave TL to wash up the gear while I settled everything before I could go (THANK YOU, TL!). Abby sent us to West Coast ferry terminal (THANK YOU, ABBY!) and before I knew it, we were on the boat on the way to Semakau! EXCITING.

DIVING SAINT JOHN'S! and LAZARUS!

Hur hur hur, the last time we went out diving, TL missed it because she was ill. Although I admit the last dive was way cooler, but this time round, the 3.5m vis we had made up for everything... plus the fact we encountered THREE seahorses, carpet eel blenny, pipefish, nudibranchs, giant flatworms, feeding filefishes and a prawn burrowing itself in silt to boot! THREEEEEE seahorses!!!!!! OH OH OH! And and ALLIED COWRY!

SEAHORSE!!!

Pipefish! The relative of the seahorse.

An allied cowry!

Funky filefish!

I'm the first to admit it's always great to see colourful or interesting looking creatures. But to be honest, it's MUCH MUCH more exciting to actually be able to see something as common as you snail or prawn or even worm exhibiting some kind of behaviour. DOING something. In ACTION.

A shrimp covering itself with silt! CAMOUFLAGE in ACTION!

We also encountered colonies of corals which were bleaching. You can see the stark WHITEness of the bleached portion of the coral.

WALKING SEMAKAU!

*MY MAC CRASHED BEFORE I COULD FINISH UPLOADING THE PHOTOS TO FLICKR!! ARGH!*

We saw a RAINBOW!!

Doesn't this just make you feel lucky to be so alive?

3 islands in 1 day. Totally shacked out by the time I reached home.

SEE MORE PHOTOS OF:
Saint John's reefs HERE!
Lazarus island's reefs HERE!
Semakau's reef flat and reefs HERE!

Saint John's ROCKS!: Nudibranch dive

2005-09-30T19:57:00.000+08:00

And so the day started as it never ended. Suffering from serious lack of sleep, we were off to Saint John's for some diving. DIVING. Though I very rarely say no to a dive, today was one of those days where I just wish I could spend the rest of the morning and afternoon in bed. Stay home. And skip all these...just like Tse-Lynn...

Periclimenes psamathe. Identified by the red spot on the hump in the abdomen.

A whole seafan of them!

Glossodoris atromarginata, (Chromodorididae).

Tiny tiny phyllid! As small as the fingernail on my pinky. (Phyllidiella pustulosa)

I have no idea what nudibranch this is. My guess is it's some Phestilla sp. But what species?! Anyone anyone? Help help?

Found under an overturned Porites colony, these nudibranchs were laying their eggs. Species of Phestilla are generally associated with hard corals, found under colonies.

HUGGEEEE POLYCLAD FLATWORM! AS BIG AS MY PALM! TWO OF THEM! MATING! (Pseudobiceros sp.)

A cute couple of Phyllidiella pustulosa.

Pseudobiceros hancockanus.

AND MY FAVOURITE!!!! Flabellina sp. Species anyone? Rhinophores seem smooth, not papillate. Hmm...

And and and...IT WAS TOGETHER WITH ANOTHER NUDIBRANCH! Which...I am ashamed to admit, I didn't notice at first. It was so well blended! TWO TWO TWO!! SO NICE!!

The other nudibranch that was there. SO NICE! I have never seen this one before! I think it's a Bornella. Species anyone?

Thuridilla bayeri. This sea slug belong to the group Actenoidea. It is not a nudibranch, but a close relative. They normally feed on algae...

Pseudoceros sp. Polyclad flatworm found in an REU (reef enhancement unit). SO CUTE! It was trying to get from one point to another by stretching itself!

OK OK, it WASN'T JUST a nudibranch dive. We DID see some fishes. Well, those that managed to be made seen by me anyway. This filefish was nicely camouflaged, merging nicely with its background.

ALERT! Warning colours on! Flaring up to make it look bigger.

And among the delicate branches of my favourite Pocillopora damicornis coral, was a little feeding crab... Ain't it cute?

A funky ascidian (sea squirt)!

A Pocillopora coral growing in a Porites colony. It probably settled on a dead part of the Porites coral and fought its way to its current size. Amazing stuff! Like enlarging a wound...Coral competition in action!

AND THE Montipora TRANSPLANT ON AN REU AT SAINT JOHN'S IS DOING SO WELL!!! IT'S SO BIG NOW! EXCELLENT!!!

Haha! I wouldn't miss this for anything else!!! I think the photos speak for themselves. We DID manage to finish the work we set out to do though, if that is what you are thinking about. But I guess we DETOURED quite a lot... haha... But with such pretty little things around, who wouldn't?

Thanks to my dive buddies Daniel and Marco for being excellent spotters! Well, maybe not Marco... he disappeared and lost him so many times only to find him again staying still looking at FISH. ARGH! Well... I DID ask him to try and compile a fish list... It's only right...

CHEERS ALL!

Oh... if you want to see more photos from these excellent dives, please please...HERE HERE. All smiles, all day after those dives! Made my day and more!

Diving diving diving!

2005-09-28T11:13:00.000+08:00

Heh! This is also another long overdue blog. Have done quite a few dives over the month and lots of exciting stuff happened and seen! The visibility has improved slightly over the past month and although it's been mainly work dives, there's always time to explore bits here and there. Right. I'll just go right down to the stuff that's happened. In chronological order. Hopefully my memory won't fail me now... Hehehe.

2nd Sept '05: Diving Lazarus!

Another work dive to Lazarus to clean the nubbins (small coral fragments farmed for reef restoration research) again. The visibility was an OK 1.5 - 2m. A great improvement from the previous dives. And guess what we found this time round!
Among the nubbin trays and rack too!

Carpet eel blenny (Congrogadus subducen). Carnivorous. More! HERE!

A Porites "nubbin". Oooh... see it growing!

Another Acropora nubbin. This branching coral has become rather rare in Singapore waters. Needs somewhat clear waters and good conditions to grow. But his "nubbin" seem to be doing pretty well. Let's see whether it holds out!

And I was inspired to look for sea spiders after Debby's blog about them. So was scouring the hydroids for them. But to my surprise! I found this! I have no idea what it is! So if you know anything about it! LET ME KNOW! ARGH!

Tiny tiny small slim nudibranch on a hydroid...Excellent stuff!

Most importantly, we've found out the miracle of having a dive nazi on board! EXCELLENT STUFF! See this and know what I mean!

You can see more photos HERE if you want. If you want. Not forcing you. =)

The FINS.

The TANKS!

The BAGS!

An overall organised neat boat! Mr Loh's boat never looked this neat before on ANY of our dives! IMPRESSIVE.

And payment for a neat and clear boat? Milo dinosaurs and plastic bottles! What could be better?

But at the end of the dive, we saw this! Smoke billowing from a ship. Hey, shouldn't there be regulations for SMOKEY SHIPS?

4th Sept '05: Reef Friends survey at Raffles Lighthouse!

Reef Friends! Reef survey! At Raffles Lighthouse! Don't know where it is? Check it out HERE!

Raffles Lighthouse (Pulau Satumu) is a fantastic fantastic place. Located at the southern-most tip of Singapore waters (it's REALLY close to Indonesian waters), it has, in my opinion, one of the most amazing reefs in Singapore! You can see photos of the previous dives I blogged about HERE, HERE, and HERE.

I am just going to be go right into the results of the survey which should be quite obvious on its own. If not, refer to my previous blog HERE. (You can see I am really going to just go right to the point here)

Results for shallow transect.

The hard live coral cover for the shallow transect is really encouraging. It is classified as GOOD under the criteria developed by the ASEAN-Australia Living Coastal Resources Project. The corals are just fantastic there... I mean, when it is coupled with better visibility, it's equivalent to diving in places like Tioman or Aur Dayang, in my opinion.

Results for deep transect.

But just barely 4-5m deeper from the reef crest (where the shallow transect was layed), the coral life dropped significantly to just barely 26%, which just barely qualifies for the FAIR category for the abovementioned criteria. SEVEN METRES! Our reefs used to extend to tens of metres... and now the reduced light penitration caused by sedimentation in our waters has greatly restricted the growth of corals to mainly the shallower depths.

See past results of surveys done around Raffles Lighthouse HERE.

I didn't really have much time to take photos this dive. But here's what I managed to squeeze in:

Ain't it pretty! I love the translucense of these bubble coral (~~Euphyllia~~ Pleurogyra (Thanks Jeff! Don't know why I thought it was Euphyllia) polyps!

A phyllid! So cute! Also saw a Bornella sp. nudibranch but didn't have time to take the photos!

A cushion star!

The survey, despite the weather, done in the rain (no lightning/thunder) and urm..rather...choppy waters, was overall a fun experience!

9th Sept '05: Diving Raffles Lighthouse & Saint John's reefs!

Woohoo! 2 work dives! One at Raffles Lighthouse and the other at Saint John's!

Raffles was a comfortable 2.5 - 3m and I managed to track down the resident allied cowry again. Was busy finding my experimental racks! So didn't really have time to take lotsa shots. =(

And and and! GUESS WHAT WE SAW AT SAINT JOHN'S?! We were cleaning the nubbins again... (yes, again...sigh) and and and! WE SAW THIS!

The tiger-tailed seahorse!

EXCELLENT STUFF! The previous week, the week we saw DOLPHINS while cleaning the nubbins... (yes. dolphins. see it HERE if you don't believe me), Daniel (the dive nazi, scroll up) saw one too hanging around the nubbins. It might be the same individual, but you can never tell with these sorta things.

More photos of Saint John's reef HERE.

19th Sept '05: Diving Raffles Lighthouse...for work

OK, no photos. ALL WORK that day. Visibility was OK, about 1.5m. Aim was to bring up my experimental recruitment tiles that I have deployed on the reefs of Raffles Lighthouse. Saw lots of crinoids! =) And urgh damselfishes...
Second dive was HORRIBLE. CURRENTS! One of my buddies got swept off into the Raffles Lighthouse-Biola channel. I was DYING...don't know why I did it...probably I just wanted to get it over and done with. Boat rides aren't cheap. And to get so many good buddies out to help me does not happen very often. So... there you go.

Something I should REALLY commend though. IMPRESSIVE STUFF. Daniel managed to TOW ME... AGAINST CURRENT... CARRYING A BASKET AND A LIFT BAG. It was thoroughly impressive. Towing me alone would be quite a challenge... but AGAINST CURRENT AND WITH THE BASKET (a lot of resistance, like a parachute)!!! IMPRESSIVE. I was about to give up... and surface... abort dive. I was grapling onto rubble pieces and rocks on the reef without a glove and they just kept giving way! Then he took hold of my tank and PULLED ME FORWARD. Took the basket from me, leaving me more hands and less resistance to fin against. Highly impressive shite... it's now on par with Jacki's lift-a-motorbike-onto-a-pickup-one-man-show deal. Actually, I might give the towing a one up cos it was just damn cool stuff.

20th Sept '05: Diving Hantu

MY EXPERIMENTALTILES ARE UP! From HANTU! All completed in ONE DAY! EXCELLENT STUFF!!!! It was highly efficient that day. I was VERY VERY pleased. =)

OK, I am really losing steam by now... SO, I am going to be damn lazy and just give you the flickr bookmarks for you to see. Anyway, I think you'd be more interested in the PHOTOS than my ramblings... so here you GO.

21st Sept '05: Diving Raffles Lighthouse

Final work dive at Raffles Lighthouse, bringing up the rest of the tiles. Second dive was a "leisure-thank-you-for-helping-me-do-work-dive" for my dive buddies... and of course myself. Haha. Well... I think it was well deserved! And it was good to recce and monitor the reef at the same time too!

Photos of stuff at Raffles Lighthouse, HERE.

Alright, really losing steam here. So just deal with it.

27th Sept '05

Work dive work dive. Normal stuff. Vis has become crappy again, down to about 0.7-1m...sigh. I wonder why. =(
SAW BABY SEAHORSE THOUGH! At Saint John's! And Kusu Island still has those WONDERFUL WONDERFUL HUGE PRETTY SEAFANS AND WHIPS! Man oh man would I love to do a leisure dive there... Hmm... Maybe I would... one weekend...=)

OK.
The END.
Of the tour de force.
Will let you know what other stuff we see on Singapore's reefs in October. But now that my tiles are up, there might be less diving, and more laboratory work. Sigh. Sad.

Cheers!

ICCS '05: Mangrove pit viper (Story 2)

2005-09-15T09:29:00.000+08:00

Fine, I was going to have some other corny title. But thanks to a certain someone who asked why I always have to have smart-pants corny titles for my blog entries...it's now just a normal title...Oh wells...let's try this for a change. Nyyeehh....

So anyway, to continue from the last Styro-miro story, here is another...

....on the MANGROVE...PIT...VIPER...OoooOOOOoooooo.....

We were "recce-ing" the Lim Chu Kang mangrove area while waiting for the ICCS participants to arrive, taking photos of interesting mangrove critters, I stumbled upon this nice tree. Yes, A TREE.

As I stepped closer to examine it, there was something black coiled in a crevice between the branches of the tree.

What the......

OOOOHH MYYY GAAWWDD!!!! IT'S...A...SNAKE!!! And Cheng Kee and Danwei came hopping over...

"What snake is it ah?"

"I don't know..."

"Hmmm..."

What I did next was probably not the smartest thing to do... especially when fronted with a snake.

Closer shot...

I went for a closer shot....MAYBE CAN ASK SOMEONE TO ID (identify) IT LATER, I thought....PLUS! It's the FIRST mangrove snake I've ever seen! SO CLOSE! So ready for the (photo) taking! AND THEN...

And even closer shot...(Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus)

ARGHHH...... NOT SMART NOT SMART! But luckily... nothing happened! So everyone, please do NOT do this. I stood there taking MACRO shots of the pit viper... and Danwei had to pry me away from it...

Later on... I showed the photos to Ria and she said... YES it's a MANGROVE PIT VIPER... VENOMOUS... LONG FANGS... BUT USUALLY VERY SMALL ABOUT *brings up her index finger* THAT THICK ONLY.

I said... Oh, it was about *brings up TWO of my fingers* THAT THICK.

Anyway, I've learnt some interesting things from Ria about this mangrove pit viper. It's has pitted heat sensors alongside it's head (hence the name PIT VIPER) and it acutally has a prehensile tail which it uses to coil itself around branches. It also uses its tail to anchor itself to some place so that it will be able to RECOIL itself after striking its prey or opponent. Besides that, the distinctive feature of this particular snake is that it has a large (compared to its body size) triangular head (with pits along side its nostrils). Also, like most snakes, it can dislodge its jaws and swallow preys several times its size! AMAZING!

This is what the Guide to Mangroves in Singapore book says about the mangrove or shore pit viper:

Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus
Family Crotalidae
Size: up to about 100 cm

The venomous Shore pit-viper lives in trees and shrubs.
It has a nasty temperament, but tends to be secretive. It is nocturnal and feeds largely on birds and lizards.

I told her that I saw it actually move backwards a bit and she said... OOH MEANS THAT IT WAS ABOUT TO STRIKE... I thought to myself, "Not smart...not smart... Noooottt smaarttt at allllll!!!!"

ICCS '05: Styro-miro! (Story 1)

2005-09-10T22:08:00.000+08:00

Yes yes yes, I know. It's been a while since I last blogged. Arrghh the pressure the pressure...I'll promise to blog more often, and write less "essays". Anyway, the back-log hill of this blog is getting quite high so I have decided to just blog the most current stuff, and slowly work my way back. So bear with me OK. Thank you.

Morning scene at the Lim Chu Kang fishing jetty....

Anyway, it's ICCS season again! Yes! International Coastal Cleanup Singapore! (see my blog on last year's ICCS).

Lim Chu Kang mangrove. One of this year's ICCS sites.

This year was Lim Chu Kang mangrove, helping Angeline be a site buddy. This year, I REALLY woke up late. We were suppose to meet at 7.00am...and I woke up at 6.30am! I SWEAR! My alarm didn't ring! I rushed down to NUS from my place in the east and managed to only be 10min late! HAH! Even managed to BATH, MAKE BREAKFAST aannddd PACK SOME LUNCH! HAH! Tell you how I did that some other time...heh...

But back to the story at hand. The story of a fisherman. Of a STYRO-MIRO fisherman (title courtesy of Ria and her endless well of corny jokes, names and comments...believe me...). Why is he called so? Here's why.

In the morning of the cleanup, we surveyed the area and found it to be littered with almost everything imaginable. Tires, straws, bags, diapers, syringes, cans, trousers, shirts, helmets, police tape, fridge, stools, glass...EVERYTHING! Including... STYROFOAM.

So you can imagine what I was thinking when I saw THIS:

Some uncle was walking towards the jetty with a rather laarrggee piece of styrofoam. I didn't know WHAT he was going to do with it. For all I cared, that piece of styrofoam was bound to be ripped to tiny pieces and end up back into the mangrove, or choking turtles, or polluting in general. So I took that photo to show the world the menacing styrofoam that will one day haunt future ICCS participants, while they bend down picking up the shredded foam pieces...one by one.

Here's another shot:

Happy with my shots, I turned my attention to the incoming hordes of ICCS participants. When I turned back around...

The uncle was gone! No longer on the jetty. Where could he have gone? I scanned the area and OOOOHHH MYYYYY GAAWWDDD......

Rowing rowing rowing to...

THE UNCLE WAS USING THE LARGE STYROFOAM PIECE AS A RAFT!!! He was sitting ON it...PADDLING away!!

Where was he going? WHERE? On a STYROFOAM RAFT?! HOW CAN A STYROFOAM PIECE SUPPORT A MAN?!??!?!?!?! LAWS OF PHYSICS HELP ME OUT HERE! IS IT POSSIBLE? AND HE MAKES IT LOOK SO EASY!!!!! Believe you me, if it had been ME up on that raft, I'd be IN the water within 2 seconds. Sitting on it would've been hard on its own... BUT PADDLING AT THE SAME TIME?!?!?!?!?!?! With such ACCURACY?!?!?!

...HIS BOAT!!!! Parked some distance from the jetty!

Bailing out water from his boat. I just looked back for a moment and...

...he was gone! What was left behind...was just THIS!

I COULDN'T BELIEVE MY EYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!! !!! HE PARKED HIS STYROFOAM BOARD!!! HE... PARKED IT... P. A. R. K. E. D. IT!!!!

Talk about RE-USING stuff... OK, it's STILL styrofoam. It's still not good. But you gotta admit. This uncle's got STYLE man.
We saw this other uncle carrying a dis-used windsurfing board...

But he is STILL not as COOL as our STYRO-MIRO fisherman. HE... PARKED HIS STYROFOAM BOARD... PAARRKKEEEDDDD ITTTT..... let's see it one last time...

P.A.R.K.E.D.

See results of the Lim Chu Kang mangrove cleanup on the 10th Sept, Saturday, HERE.

Results of other sites HERE.

And, photos photos photos, HERE.

Bad visibility, pleasant surprises...

2005-08-18T21:44:00.000+08:00

So, finally started diving again. Was starting to feel my sealegs going jelly for a while...but, YEAP, starting those regular dives again...

Not that I am looking forward to it nowadays. And there can only be one reason for that. Two words. BAD. VIS.

Yah man. The vis is....WHOOAHHH where's my hand...thought I lost it for a moment there...couldn't see TWO fingers in front of me eyes...

Nah, ain't that bad. It's about 20 - 30cm nowadays. Good days, half a metre.

A friend of mine just flew back into Singapore recently and she was asleep in the plane all the way. And when she woke up... she looked out the window... and said to herself..."Oh my gawd, what gross coloured waters they have here. It's all BROWN and SOOooo dirty!" And then she paused. Thought to herself for a while..."Wait a minute... I recognise that land mass...isn't that...YES...YES IT IS... We're here already?! It's...SINGAPORE...!"

Then it hit her. WOW. I can't imagine the amount of dirt that's pouring into our waters right now. It's just THICK BROWN MUCK.

And that's the vis I have to dive in nowadays. These past 2 and half months.

But all said and done, little pleasant surprises still pop up now and then...=)

Take for example, this cuuutteee baby nudibranch...So tiny, it's smaller than my fingernail!

Flabellina sp. nudibranch. This CUUUUUUTTTTEEEEE little baby was spotted by TL while we were diving at Pulau Hantu! Could barely see it... but THERE IT WAS.

This golden flecked crinoid was also spotted at Pulau Hantu. And is it just me, or are crinoids suddenly everywhere?! Prettyyyy.....looks like something you'd wear for Hari Raya or Deepavali...or Chinese New Year...FESTIVE. Yeah. That's what it is!

And ANEMONES! This particular one was spotted while diving along the reefs of Lazarus island!

Oh, and did I mention THIS! Glossodoris sp. nudibranch. THIS little bugger was just THERE right in front of us for the LONGEST time. JUST THERE...Blending in...well, the bad vis helped its camouflage nicely I think...

And talking about Lazarus island diving. NOW THAT IS SOMETHING ALTOGETHER. 'Cos when you surface...THIS is what greets you...

KITES! BRAHMANY KITES! Our native kite! And the WHITE-BELLIED SEA EAGLE!

KIIITTEESSSS AND EAAGLLLEESSS.... WHAT CAN BEAT THAT MAN!!!!! There were SOOO MANY OF THEM!! And they were swooping down into the waters... circling... being MAGNIFICENT CREATURES! SOOOO COOOLLL.... Our boatman, Mr. Loh, WHIPPED out his binoculars (I don't know where he keeps all these cool nifty stuff on his bumboat man...) AND ACTUALLY... COUNTED... 20..TWENTY OF THEM...at one time!!! KITES...AND...EAGLES... HOW COOL IS THAT!

WHOOOSH!!!

AWWW man... that SERIOUSLY made my day...

But again... back to the underwater world. Not forgetting the cool corals...

We saw THIS baby coral growing on the the giant clam metal mesh rack at Hantu...

Favia recruit growing ON the metal mesh...

And not only that... we saw ANOTHER well established recruit on the metal mesh rack...

AWESOME stuff to see recruits. Means the reef still has a chance...

But let's not forget the challenges wrought onto these cute little baby corals...

This silt...piled onto this MESH in just ONE WEEK. ONNEE WEEKK. This is what the corals need to constantly battle against...

Hour after hour, day after day... corals need to constantly clear or prevent sediments falling onto them. And this, my friend, takes up a lot of energy. Energy that can be used to grow and reproduce...to strengthen their calcium carbonate skeletons...

Mucus secreted by corals help to clear sediments falling onto them; like this pectinia coral here.

I think Singapore's corals are unique in that sense. They have adapted to our sedimented waters and learnt to deal with it. But how much more can they take?

Adopt a reef, and save the coral

2005-06-29T21:41:00.002+08:00

An article published on the 28th of July in the Straits Times:

Adopt a reef, and save the coral
By Chang Ai-Lien Science Correspondent

VIEW FULL ARTICLE HERE

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE READ THE ARTICLE BEFORE PROCEEDING WITH THIS BLOG...if not, it will just look like another one of my ramblings. Heh.

Read it? Sounds massive eh?

Anyway, to give you a better idea of what an REU looks like and what it IS and what it can DO, here it is:

A 3-year old REU with naturally recruited Pocillopora sp. corals growing it, among other things.

You might think, "OH MAN, SO BARE! Just a few of those rock things!" But to me, it looks impressive. Corals are slow growing, and to see so many colonies doing rather well on these Reef Enhancement Units (REUs) a.k.a. (as now known) Reef Homes (basically artificial reefs), is quite heart warming! It truely is...

Here's more photos of baby corals (my FAVOURITE-MOST-THING to see when diving...):

An Acropora sp. coral growing on a 3-yr old REU. I think this baby coral is about 2 years old and about 5cm wide...BUT IT ALREADY HAS THE CUTEST PORCELAIN CRAB LIVING ON IT!!

Favites sp. coral also on a 3 yr old REU. About 6cm wide. I love this one because it's so fluorescent!

The point is, these REUs a.k.a. Reef Homes, DO WORK. I was a skeptic to begin with when I had a hand in doing a project involving these artificial reefs. I didn't really think they'd be any better than natural substrates like dead coral rubble, which make up a substantial portion of our reefs of late.

But, seeing it for myself, following the life of some these REUs from the beginning, I began to believe. These REUs provide a more stable environment for coral recruitment compared to natural dead coral rubble (which consist of small-ish unattached pieces of dead corals). Although I agree more proper studies are still needed to evaluate the performance of these REUs, so far, it looks quite good.

A rubble patch. Because rubble patches are normally horizontal, they trap sediments that can smother the corals. Rubble make up a substantial part of our Singapore reefs nowadays. The REUs' mostly vertical surface discourage trapping of sediments.

REUs can also be home to other marine creatures, such as hydroids and anamones as seen here. It can also provides shelter for fishes and other marine organisms.

So far, I have been telling you what REUs CAN DO. They CAN provide a nicer home for baby coral compared to rubble areas on Singapore's reefs. They CAN artificially contribute to structural complexity of the reef (shapes, structures, i.e. places to hide for fish and other marine life). They CAN therefore POTENTIALLY aid in the "restoration" and "rehabilitation" of damaged reefs.

THIS IS IMPORTANT. THEY CAN. BUT....

The reason why the words restoration and rehabilitation are in inverted comas (" "), is because it is IMPOSSIBLE to fully restore and rehabilitate reefs. We have lost over 60% of our coral reefs, we can't possibly restore THAT.

And most of our remaining reefs have lost up to 65% of their live coral cover...THIS, we might be able to rehabilitate. But it would take a MIRACLE if the conditions of our marine environment and waters remain the way it is NOW.

The amount of sediments in our waters have increased TEN-FOLD of more since the 1970s. Our water visibility has dropped from, on average, 10m to about 1-2m. On some really bad days, the vis can drop to less than 20cm. But on good days, 4-5m. (If you want to know more about BAD and GOOD days and how I define them, email me at bluetempeh@yahoo.com. If not, the Blog will be too LONG.)

All these means that light, needed for the algae in the corals to make food that the coral also uses (see PAST BLOG: What you need to know about corals), is not able to penetrate and reach the corals and zooxanthellae in the corals. The corals will literally die of starvation.

Worse still, when the sediments SETTLE onto the corals, it can also smother the corals.

Handful of silt from the silt layer characteristic of Singapore's reefs.

OK OK, so you've heard all these before. You know all these. But WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH THE REUs?! These REEF HOMES, these artificial reefs that will supposedly help recover our lost coral reefs.

Well, it has EVERYTHING to do with the REUs. The point of the REUs is to recruit all these corals. And to have corals, in a few decades (your children's and grandchildren's time), fully colonise the REUs and our reefs to be full of corals again!

But if we put a couple of thousand of these REUs down and STILL have our waters as sedimented as it is (as dredging and reclamation works continue), you CANNOT expect the REUs to do their job! WE, as Singaporeans, as the public, have to also ensure that the surrounding conditions are CONDUCIVE for corals SETTLEMENT and RECRUITMENT (baby corals are moving plankton when very young, and then attach onto the substrate and grow to resemble the corals you see and know of) and GROWTH.

Dying Pocillopora sp. coral on a 1 yr old REU placed on the reef of Kusu Island. Waters need to also be conducive for coral recruitment and growth for these REUs to do their job.

The cost you ask? $360 is not a lot if you consider it as an investment for the marine environment for your kids and grandkids. That's why I think it's rather worth it. But if you're going to invest in this, as an investor, you have the RIGHT and RESPONSIBILITY to make sure that your investment thrives. To take interest to ensure that your efforts for marine conservation is not wasted.

REUs at Kusu Island. The vis that day was 4m. This photo has not been edited. When these were first deployed, the vis was 0m. I REPEAT ZERO. Due to reclamation works at the surrounding islands. Water is dynamic. Even if reclamation/dredging is not taking place at that particular reef, it WILL affect surrounding reefs.

On reefs where the water conditions are better and there is good documentation of coral recruitment, such as reefs of Raffles Lighthouse, these REUs have been shown to work wonderfully. So I PERSONALLY feel that to make the REUs work, a campaign for clearer, cleaner (less sedimented) waters is truely needed. PLUS, wouldn't it be nice to look down the jetty at Pulau Hantu or Kusu or Saint John's and have water so clear you can see the corals and marine life? It would do wonders for Singapore's image as a city: not only a GREEN CITY... but also a BLUE one...

Our reefs are still rich. As I myself and many others have documented. Bountiful in a diversity of marine life and corals. So I too feel that there is a good chance for recovery. But you can't just slap on a plaster and expect a wound to heal on its own. You need to clean it first, just like you need to clean/clear our waters first before corals once again take a foothold on our reefs.

REUs on reefs of Raffles Lighthouse (Pulau Satumu). 4-5m vis.

With such a big project ("Adopt a reef, and save the coral"), hopefully people will take more interest in our marine areas. Aware, informed citizens make good and active citizens. You have been informed (hopefully), what are YOUR opinions?

ONE to make the DIFFERENCE.

2005-06-27T20:03:00.000+08:00

Last night, I had the great honour of attending the wedding of a friend of mine. You might be wondering what a WEDDING and marine conservation have anything in common?! Well, I didn't think there'd be any link either... but I was pleasantly surprised to find out otherwise...

I am sure you are well aware of the link between chinese weddings and shark's fin soup. My friend, not ONLY boycotted the broth for his wedding dinner, but went an extra mile (or so) and showcased a slideshow of marine conservation messages (including full expose on how and where shark's fins come from, blast fishing, the need for us to respect and protect our marine environment...etc).

And, I might add, HE MADE THE SLIDESHOW HIMSELF! Amidst the hectic schedule of planning a wedding and keeping his bride and family happy! I TRULY TAKE MY HAT OFF. RESPECT man. R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

That night, he probably affected a lot of people, young and old. And touched and inspired those of us who are fighting for the same cause to conserve our marine heritage. An avid diver and a volunteer for one of the marine conservation expeditions I led to Sabah, he's truly ONE to make a difference.

This is a tribute to him and his ways.

He, as ONE, made a difference. YOU can too. It is said that each of us are connected to just about everyone else by 5 people. So, theoretically, if you, as an individual, can effectively spread the message of marine conservation to FIVE other people, you can change the world!

Not CHANGE change, but maybe make it a place where our marine environment gets the respect and protection it rightfully deserves. For our own good, too!

So never ask what difference can one person make. More often than not, ONE is all it needs to save our reefs.

Want to be heard? Need a channel? Mail your thoughts and sentiments on marine issues to reefnews@bluewatervolunteers.org.

Also visit the BWV website for more news and on how you can contribute towards marine conservation.

Also see WILD SINGAPORE's YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE page to learn more on what you can do as an individual.

EVERY LITTLE BIT COUNTS! Start a Blog, write a letter, tell your friends, drop it in a conversation, teach your students, lead by example... so many ways, and all it takes is YOU.

The waters of Hantu and Raffles Lighthouse

2005-06-10T11:02:00.000+08:00

Ahhh.... the joy of coming back to Singapore and getting my fins wet after one month of a dry spell doing MATHS in Bangkok.

Anyway, this will be quite a photo-less blog I must warn you... because I FORGOT TO BRING MY CAMERA WITH ME UNDERWATER! =(

OK, so the story goes like this:

It's my first time doing work dives in such a long time, and I WAS DREADING IT.

After hearing all the horror stories from Debby and her Hantu Blogger team ("1 foot at 2-3m depth and 0m past 7m depth") I was expecting to be diving into BROWN MUCK; blind and groping around for my experimental racks at Hantu.

So that's why I decided to dive Raffles Lighthouse first, hoping that vis would be as good as the last dive I had (7th May). To my surprise, the water was also GREEN and quite heavily sedimented! I WAS AGHAST!

Well, the GREEN bit I can understand... it IS the warmer months of June... warmer waters... algal blooms... phytoplankton... GREEN... versus diving in Nov/Dec when waters are colder and less phytoplankton in our waters...(THE SEA ACTUALLY SEEMS BLUE-ISH EVEN WITH ALL THE SILT!)

But the SILT... MAN! The waters can be GREEN but they can STILL be CLEAR too...

And BOTH Raffles Lighthouse and Hantu had the same green SILTY waters!
According to some of our "older" divers, Singapore was never so SILTY eventhough the waters do get GREENISH due to the seasonal phytoplankton blooms in warmer periods.

Interestingly enough, the start of this bad visibility in our waters seems to be in conjunction with the re-start of the Tuas reclamation... Hmm... makes you think huh...

I miss the clear waters. When the vis was 4+m every single time we dived in. It just goes to show that if reclamation and dredging just stops.... the vis CAN...AND WILL... IMPROVE...

In the mean time, eventhough the vis is so bad... the marine life are STILL THERE!!!! Me and Tse-Lynn was pleasantly surprised when we found that the reefs of Raffles Lighthouse were strewn with BABY FEATHER STARS!!! (sorry no photo! I FORGOT MY CAMERA!) THEY WERE SO CUUUUTTEEEEE!!!!!!!

And I brought Jun, my new dive buddy and probably lab slave (soon soon...) to see crinoids and ALLIED COWRIES!!
Oozie, my other dive buddy... saw a 70cm GROUPER and I sneaked up on a BATFISH and was less than a meter away from it!

AHHHAAAH! The bad vis means.....YOU CAN SNEAK UP ON FISH!!! Hahaha....

Signing off, THE BLUE TEMPEH! =)

ALLIED COWRIES!

2005-04-28T14:23:00.000+08:00

Ever since that fateful dive I did with the Hantu Bloggers where I saw my FIRST allied cowry, I have been fascinated with them!

Allied cowry on a seawhip, taken at Raffles Lighthouse, 26th April 2005.

THEY ARE SOOO CUTE!! I have no idea what species this is, but allied cowries in general are rather fascinating. For example, some allied cowries can get their shell pigments (and even vary their shell sculpture) from the substrate in which they live and feed on! So if they're transfered to another whip/soft coral of the same species, they'll eventually take on the colour of their new home! Amazing eh? Here's more pictures... I bumped into TWO that dive at Raffles Lighthouse! =)

Close up...Awww isn't it so adooorraaablllee?? =)

Oooh and here are some OTHER things I bumped into...

Clownfishes! They were sharing their home with a couple of anemone shrimps and this REALLY REALLY SMALL BABY CLOWNFISH!!! It was smaller than my fingernail!

And this baby flatworm!

Hmm... actually I realise what made my work diving that day were all the TINY TINY creatures! And it is SO worthwhile when you actually SPOT one! And there are just LOADS in Singapore waters! You just have to keep you eyes peeled and know where they like to hide! I went back to the EXACT SAME SEAWHIP the next day to show Tse-Lynn the allied cowry again! It was STILL THERE!

Hmmm if only our waters were clearer, doing dive guiding here would be OH SO FUN and OH SO REAL! CLEAN OUR WATERS!

Free XXX Photos: Corals in action!

2005-04-10T22:26:00.000+08:00

WOOOH....It was a hot and steamy week at Raffles Lighthouse 26th March to 3rd April. It was GETTING HOT as Debby from the Hantu Bloggers puts it.

Terrific terrific teerrriiiifffiiiiccc fannntaasstiiccc week of diving when the corals put on a live show and had an orgy of a good time out there on the reefs of Raffles Lighthouse. With a STUNNING 6 M VIS!

In this campout, a group of people from NUS, NUS Marine Biology Lab, NParks and the Hantu Bloggers came out to witness the miracle, almost sacred for those of us who so love the marine environment, of coral spawning.

Dr. James Guest a.ka. Dr. Coral Sex from the Marine Bio Lab set up some transects days ahead and, roughly after sunset, we dived in and swam along these transects, recording and documenting any corals that was spawning.

JAMES! Spiffy shot with Veron's corals of the world book in hand...

GORGEOUS SUNSETS! Ahhhh....doesn't it just make you feel so GLAD you're alive!

It started out slow. The first few nights there were none but a couple of early spawners. One, two...bits of egg bundles floating here, there...nothing much. Not exactly what you'd expect after seeing the BLUE PLANET video on coral spawning about 10 times.

The first coral I saw spawning on the 28th night - Montipora sp.

Close up...

Although there wasn't much coral spawning action, that doesn't mean there was NO action at all. Other critters were up and about! IT WAS SO FANTASTIC! It was, as Debby said, diving the Manado house reef! It's seriously NOT what you expect diving in Singapore would be. Especially NIGHT DIVING in Singapore. It was like WAHHHH....NO words can really describe it...AWESOME!

CRABS CRABS everywhere! Porcelain crabs, spider crabs, decorator crabs! SHRIMPS! Gorgonian shrimps, urchin shrimps, anemone shrimps...FISHES! Almost everywhere you shine your torch at, you'll see BIG FISHES! SMALL FISHES! All KINDS of fishes! Seriously unlike what you'd expect from Singapore! Debby & Jeff (NParks) even saw a NURSE SHARK on the night dive I didn't go...ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Proof, you ask? GO SEE HER BLOG!

A porcelain crab

A little shrimp on a soft coral

Close up of a rather friendly prawn

THIS SMALL CRAB IS SO CUTE! It's stuck bits of soft coral polyps on its back to camouflage itself. Can you spot its red eyes?

Feather star on a sea fan

This three-spot damselfish (Dascyllus trimaculatus is not a very common dude in our waters. Normally associated with anemones and lives alongside anemone fishes. I found this one living with your false clownfish.

An Acropora (staghorn coral) goby. Usually these little devils are so damn HARD to photograph during the day. They're fast little things and hide the the smallest of nooks in the corals. This one was asleep.

Anemones like this one, fluoresce very prettily...

Never seen any sorta cowry like this before! SO PRETTY!!!! ARGH!

EVERYTHING just makes it WORTH it to clamber down the damn breakwater. The kind of breakwaters you see lining Singapore's coasts, making it possible to draw most parts of our shores with a ruler.

It's more like a rock wall, or whatever you call it. It was akin to combining rock climbing and diving...Isn't that just great, an extreme sport you can do just at your door step. I think I've gained more leg power from trying very very hard not to slip, trip and fall. Luckily, noone got injured.

The only major injury I had was from walking out of my house half asleep the morning of the campout. Somehow, I managed to fall along the pavement on my way to grab a cab. I was standing one minute and on the ground the next with a sprained ankle and a bloodied knee.

The funny thing was, there was this primary school kid that was walking towards me. And as I was falling, and even as I had fallen, the expression on his round little face didn't change a bit. I was down on the ground as he walked straight past me, wind in his hair. He didn't even GLANCE AT ME. It was thoroughly amazing. What's even MORE amazing was that I got into a cab with my bloodied knee, cleaned it and gave it some first aid in the cab, and the cab driver didn't say A WORD. What can I say...at least he didn't throw me out...But it's amazing how good Singaporeans are at ignoring things...

Anyway, that's besides the point. I felt like CRAP and all I wanted to do was go home after a night on the island. I didn't manage to finish my work (setting up my RECRUIT RACKS, see previous blog entry) during the day dive and the currents were crap. It didn't help that everyone threatened to hold me down and OPSITE my wound. If you've never felt OPSITE on an open wound before, give me a ring, I'll gladly introduce you to it. After 3 years of OPSITE-ing my wounds during expeditions, I didn't react to it kindly. Not if I have an alternative. I did go home, and treated my bloody pussy wound...with a much less painful, and more effective way.

The next couple of nights, the dives were more action packed! MORE SPAWNING! But that meant that I didn't have time to take photos of the other marine critters out and about!

Acropora sp. spawning.

Looks gross right...So many eggs! Setting and ready to go like a time bomb!

PINK EGGS! See the one being squeezed out?

Last year, we had a campout at Pulau Kusu to observe coral spawning too. And all I saw was these Acroporas (staghorn corals) spawning...But this year, I managed to witness the variety of ways corals spawn! I think spawning Acroporas is analogous with constipation, gross but true. You SEE the eggs, you SEE IT, but it takes SOOO damn LOONNGG for it to get pushed out. But when it IS released, it's WOW! FANTASTIC! Like...Aaaahhh......relief.

These spawning Acanthastria corals:

They remind me of RIPE ZITS being squeezed out. If you've squeezed your pimples before, then you'd know what I'm talking about. If not, use your imagination.

RIPE ZITS.

Then, there's also the spawning Favites corals that actually remind me of little sugar coated candies being dispensed. You know, the NERDS sweets made from the Willy Wonka factory thing...go look for it 7-eleven or sth. I ain't kidding you! Mmmmm.....sweeettsss....

Trail of sweets!

But some of them ALSO look like RIPE ZITS being squeezed. So it depends, really...

FANTASTIC! Burst of egg bundles!

These egg bundles you see are actually packets of sperm AND eggs all mixed into one. Later on, they will separate, get mixed and matched, to become a soup of coral larvae...Ah, the miracles of life!

Spawning Merulina corals look like ripe BLISTERS ready to be POPPED...

POP!

Not much time to take photos of other things doesn't mean NO time at all! I saw a moray eel, 3 octopis (or whatever the plural for octopus is!), flatworms, feather stars aplenty, crabs and many more in addition to whatever I saw the night before!

SO BEAUTIFUL! ELEGANT! It's translucent body is absolutely stunning!

OCTOPUS!!!!

PRETTY PINK CRINOID!!!!!!!! SO PRETTY!!!

...and it was poo-ing...see the green string there...yeah...that its...poo

A pretty green and white arrowhead feather star...SO CUTE!

Another pretty anemone!

This crab was HUGE...looks tasty eh...SLURP

The subsequent couple of days, there were EVEN MORE spawning activity! There were EGG BUNDLES EVERYWHERE! Mushroom corals spawned and the big massive boulder coral spawned too, along with many others! It was intensive work trying to note down all the corals spawning! I didn't manage to in the end, it was just WOW! TOO MANY THINGS GOING ON MAN! There were EGG BUNDLES EVERYWHERE! I said it before and I'll say it again, EGG BUNDLES EVERYWHERE! It was AMAZING! WAS JUST LIKE THE BLUE PLANET VIDEO! I felt like crying underwater...I think my mask got foggy for a short while...it was such a breathtaking moment just to see all that coral spawning and egg bundles in the water...Sigh, WOW, even with my bloody pussy knee, I wouldn't have traded that dive for anything!

Spawning Platygyra sp.

Egg bundles of Platygyra sp. ready to go!

And egg bundle of Goniastrea sp.

Spawning Galaxea sp.

This white bundle is actually a bundle of sperm and sterile eggs...

Galaxea corals have "male" and "female" corals, and the "male" corals release sperm bundles along with sterile eggs high in fat to help these bundle float.

Spawning Echinopora sp.

A closer look...

An Echinophyllia/Oxypora sp. spawning...TINY TINY STRING OF EGGS!

FANTASTIC NIGHT! That was the night I also saw an eel blenny:

My second ever sighting of an eel blenny...

AND THIS HUMUNGOUS PUFFER FISH JUST SLEEPING THERE! IT WAS HUUGGEE!!! WAAHAHHHAHAHAH!!! SO EXCITING! Not as exciting as the nurse shark, but it can hold its own, dunchathink?

After that, it was quite downhill, the vis started getting not as good; probably due to all that larvae and planulae in the water along with the change in currents...

I didn't see much on April Fool's night...nothing much at all...................................

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.
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EXCEPT FOR A SPAWNING ANEMONE!!!!! WOOOOOHH!! IT WAS SO COOL!

The story goes as such. I was taking photos of a sleeping anemonefish...You know, when else can you get these fishes to stay still for once!

So there I was taking nice photos of the false clownfish...

SNAP SNAP...FLASH FLASH...AND THEN...!!!!!!

...I saw this WHITE CLOUD of something drifting past...I was like...WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?!?!?!!?

THEN I SAW THE ANEMONE MOUTH...And...OOOOHHH MYYY GAAAWWWDDDD.... IT WAS SPAWNING!!!!

So it's not ONLY the corals who's getting hot hot hot, the ANEMONES ARE AT IT TOO!

And...oh...also saw this gigantic flatworm...haha!

EXCITING NIGHT! And it was about to get EVEN MORE EXCITING! At about 6 am, the WIND started to really pick up speed...I was sleeping in a hammock under the coconut trees, so the thought of having one of the coconuts getting loose and falling on me really woke me up. And the thought of a rain storm on its way was also not very appealing. Also, Jeff told me stories of waves crashing above the breakwaters of Raffles Lightouse and washing gear and equipment away, so I was really expecting the worst. The lighthouse keepers were up and about too...they told me the wind will blow the rain past the lighthouse...

THE WIND WAS AMAAAZIINNNGGGLY STRONG... look at what happened to Jame's tent:

Flattened...

In any case, rain or not, falling coconuts don't equal a good night's sleep, so I moved into a tent after Dr. Peter Todd, from the Marine Bio Lab (who was unfortunately stuck on the island with me that dark, cold and stormy day...), secured the tents down.

And guess what, IT RAINED. IT BLOODY RAINED! And the TENTS were not WATERPROOF. IT WAS LEAKING! From seams, from zips...from god knows where! My tent was slowly flooding...I used some of my dirty shirts and rashguards and hammock to act as a barrier and kept on sleeping, inching bit by bit as more water flowed into the tent. I didn't have a sleeping bag, so it was just me and my sarong. Until I was cornered, literally, to the last few inches of the tent, did I move out to seek the bench under the lighthouse in the work area...I wanted to go home right then and there. BRRR....

Look what happened to the table...and notice the coconut trees in the background...

"Scene of terrible destruction," as James would say. James' papers got wet wet wet in his leaky flattened tent. He wasn't around to save it and unfortunately I didn't have the right mind to either...Sigh...

Anyway, COMFORT ARRIVED! In the form of Abby and Zee! They quickly turned the wet dingy day around and we had a GREAT FUN TIME!

Abby making breakfast/lunch which was OH SO GOOD! Eggs and sausages and sardines with onions and celery...she's a regular gourmet maestro in the field.

Danwei doing his UROPS presentation on the island...

After breakfast we went snorkling! And saw so many things! I didn't manage to photo them all though...it's MUCH harder to stalk and photo something when you're so buoyant!

We saw so many gobies and shrimp pairs and ghost shrimps and octopus and small baby damselfishes and blue runners and wrasses and crabs and shrimps!!!!

A pair of anemone shrimps! I drank A LOT of seawater to take these shots!

It looks like it has something growing out of it side...

Abby and Zeehan...classic shot...haha!

And the HIGHLIGHT of my night dive was THIS WHITE ALLIED COWRY! IT WAS SOOO COOOOLLL!!!!!!!! I couldn't get enough of it! MY SECOND EVER ALLIED COWRY!!! My first was at Hantu!

AMAZING!!! I LOVE IT SOOOO MUUUCCH!!!

Diving at Raffles Lighthouse is absolutely wonderful! At 12m, you get WALL DIVING with critters you'd normally find at depths of 30+m elsewhere! It's thoroughly AMAZING!

On the 3rd of April, we were to leave the island...I was both glad and sad. I was glad that I'd get to sleep on my dry bed again, but sad that as I'll be leaving all the great diving and cool marine creatures behind...

But as we were transporting all the tanks and camp stuff to the jetty, Danwei alerted me of a high pitch noise. He cooly told me that he thinks Abby was calling me. AND SHE WAS! SHE SAW THE METER LONG LONE BARRACUDA SWIMMING BY THE JETTY!!! I didn't manage to take a snap of it, as my camera wasn't handy...but it was HUGE AND LOOKED MEAN BUT OH SO MAGNIFACENT AT THE SAME TIME!!!!!! WOW!!!

And we also saw HUGE PARROTFISHES (the water was clear enough for us to see the reef flat area...) and a PAIR OF THE FOXFACE RABBITFISH, Siganus vulpinus, A NEW RECORD FOR SINGAPORE IN A LONG TIME!!!!. It's only been recorded in our fish markets in the earlier part of LAST CENTURY. So it's technically not a NEW new record, according to Kelvin Lim of the RMBR, but now, we have a definite locality record! According to him, these fishes don't usually occur in silty waters...BUT IT WAS THERE AND WE SAW IT! AHAHAHA! NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT!

Going back...

ALL IN ALL, this was an AMAZING CAMPOUT!! The surprises of diving in Singapore. DEFINITELY REWARDING! Good bye Raffles Lighthouse, good bye night dives... hope to see you again next year...Hmmm....Good luck to all the baby corals!

GUESS WHO?!?!?!?!

WORK IN PROGRESS: Studying Coral Recruitment

2005-04-07T21:52:00.000+08:00

If you've recently dived at Pulau Hantu, you might have noticed (or swam into) some new structures that have popped up recently. They might look a bit like THIS:

This is actually a preliminary unit set up at Pulau Hantu. The real ones look like these too...

What are these? Is it rubbish some people have just thrown onto the reef? What is it for?

I'm sure these are just SOME of the questions that pop into your mind when you see these odd man-made structures underwater.

Well, for starters, these are what I call RECRUIT RACKS. They were placed there for research purposes by the Marine Biology Lab for studying coral settlement and recruitment.

What is coral settlement and recruitment?
Well, in essence, it's when small baby corals (coral larvae/planulae) floating about in the water column decide to SETTLE down on something (e.g. rock, dead coral, my terracotta tiles...hehe). These newly settled baby corals are sort of new RECRUITS to the reef and helps to build up the reef itself - just like when a new recruit joins the army...etc. I think you get my point, right? Heh...

Then, what sort of coral recruitment study are we doing?
There are a couple of things we want to find out. Firstly, we want to find out what is the angle of inclination of an artificial substrate that coral recruits like best - whether it is a horizontal, inclined (30 or 60 degrees) or vertical surface. This is the reason why you would probably see a cluster of 4 RACKS set up with these 4 angles.

Secondly, we want to find out at the different coral recruitment rates at different REEF ZONE - reef flat, reef crest or reef slope. This is why you would see my RACKS distributed at these 3 reef zones. You'd probably see it any zone with CORALS in them. You gotta dive deeper down if you want to escape my racks! Heh...

Thirdly, we want to find out the angle of inclination of a surface is most suitable for each reef zone, or whether there is any difference at all.

These are the main things we want to find out...

WHY do we want to find these things out?
This is a very important question. WHY. WHY indeed...WHY WHY WHY...No, it's not the fact that I like to hammer things in underwater and spend weeks setting them up, bolting them in, whether in strong currents and surge, or in slack water...

My buddies helping me hammer in the angle irons. They have to be stable so that they won't get dislodged in currents or surge...

It is because, once we find these things out, we might be able to mitigate some of the horror that has been done to our reefs. Notice that all of my RECRUIT RACKS are set up at RUBBLE AREAS.

Rubble, as the name suggests is defined as loose pieces of dead coral. Our reefs are characterised by the high percentage of RUBBLE cover we have on our reefs. And previous studies have shown that these RUBBLE areas take VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY long to recover and get covered by corals. A scientist have even dubbed rubble areas as RUBBLE KILLING FIELDS. 'Cos the reason why these rubble areas take so long to recover is because when baby corals settle on the rubble pieces, they more often than not, DIE.

WHY DIE? Because the rubble pieces are LOOSE, not fixed. The tumble and turn, causing abrasion of the baby corals. When the rubble pieces turn, they can smother the baby corals too. They can get covered with silt very easily as well (as you would probably have experience with if you dive in Singapore). And they can roll off the reef into the deep abyss (or the not-so-deep abyss, but deep anough) where they can't get enough light, and DIE.

Debby from the HANTU BLOGGERS helping me out by BOLTING IN my TERRACOTTA TILES for the baby corals to settle on...

More DEBBY! hehehe... see her blog on my angle irons racks

Sad cycle of death. Corals in Singapore are getting stressed by all sorts of factors. Siltation/sedimentation, boat groundings, improper anchoring practices, and illegal collection among others. And if the rate of degradation of the coral reef is not balanced by the rate of recruitment and recovery, the reef will eventually die off. And I'm SURE none of us want this, right?

And to find out how to BEST mitigate these affects, and help give our reefs a PUSH (maybe even a SHOVE), we need to know WHAT corals like, how they behave (in a way) and essentially BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE so as not to do the wrong thing and waste more time. With enough information, we can hopefully specially cater to the rehabilitation of Singapore's reefs. Each reef is unique and so is Singapore's.

One of my two favourite buddy pairs helping me deploy my damn f***ing heavy angle irons.

Ferrying the angle irons to the site....

It's no easy task. It took me and my buddies WEEKS of consequtive diving to set them all up...GAH!

Hopefully, this study, along with others in this REEF RESTORATION AND REHABILITATION project, can provide background information not only about Singapore's reefs, but also reefs similar in nature in other parts of the world. Local data for global use.

THEN, WHY HANTU?!?!? OF ALL PLACES?!!
The reasons why I chose Hantu West as one of the two locations for my research (the other is Raffles Lighthouse reef), is because, 1) coral spawning has been documented there before, meaning there is a SOURCE of baby corals, 2) Survey results show a drastic almost 50% decrease in live coral cover at this particular stretch of fringing reef (see report on REEF FRIENDS HANTU SURVEY). This site is also dive often by many divers and hold BOUNTIFUL MARINE LIFE! (as you can see from the HANTU BLOG and we would like to find out whether it's recovering and how we can help it recover faster too.

The hero of the day! Caleb, who jumped into the water during lunch time to retrieve a stray plastic bag that had been blown into the water....

SO WHAT DO YOU DO IF YOU COME ACROSS THE RECRUIT RACKS?
Well, you can... LEAVE IT BE, for one. I would greatly appreciate if you do not touch it. WHY? Because it is, after all, an experiment and by touching it (especially the tiles), you are introducing bias. And you could be removing small microscopic BABY CORALS from the tiles!!!!!

HEAVY HEAVY ANGLE IRONS!

It's a DAMN PAIN to set them up and don't get me started about that. My nails are TOTALLY gone, there's scars on both my hands and diving everyday doing WORK when the VIS IS SO BLOODY FANTASTIC is SOOOOOOO ARGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! Not that it's bad. I mean beats doing work in 20cm VIS. But but but... ARGHHH it's so TEMPTING to just swim off especially when you see huge schools of yellowtail barracudas, frogfish, nudibranchs and all things SO SO COOL aplenty around you. And they ALL seem to show up when I'm doing work and have no time to photograph anything!

BOLTING TERRACOTTA TILES WHEN THE VIS IS 6 METERS! LOOK AT THAT VIS! We should be leisure diving!

Also, if you happen to be diving and see any of my racks upturns, upset, destroyed, uprooted, cracked, broken, disturbed, PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO EMAIL ME!

I also have sediment traps and temperature loggers deployed there so please do not disturb them either yah!

All these racks would hopefully be removed after 4 months unless they are of further experimental of rehabilitation use for the reef. Until then, please please... do not disturb them.

I hope I've answered MOST of the questions that you had in mind... and I hope you understand my explanations. I would have written more if not for the fact that this thing is getting too LONG and you might not even GET this far into the blog....hehehe...

I'll leave you with this photo of an ICON STAR that I came across when doing work at Hantu... This sea star is so ICONIC (geddit geddit) to Hantu... PRETTY AIN'T IT! =)

IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER QUERIES, FEEL FREE TO EMAIL ME AT BLUETEMPEH@YAHOO.COM!

OH OH OH OH OH ONE MORE THING! If you happen to have FREE TIME and WANT TO BUDDY ME for my work dives, EMAIL ME TOO.

REEF FRIENDS: Semakau 27th Feb '05

2005-03-11T21:53:00.000+08:00

ANOTHER REEF FRIENDS SURVEY DIVE!!!! This time, it's PULAU SEMAKAU! with a comfortable 4m vis!!!! (and some say 5m)

The VISIBILITY! Look at the tape! Cool eh!

This time, we managed to survey TWO SITES! With 23 volunteers in total, consisting of past SIF YEP marine conservation expedition participants (all trained in Reef Check and/or LIT (see past log on REEF FRIENDS: Dive survey at Hantu).

The volunteers were split into two boats. Logistics was smooth, arranged by Jacki (Gill Divers) who's recently joined Reef Friends as a coordinator! For ONCE, I didn't have to worry about logistics...and boats...and payments...VERY NICE!

Our boat...was the salvage engineers' barge.

All our barangs! Not bad for a barge eh...

Anyway, we surveyed two sites at Semakau. The Semakau fringing reef, and the Semakau patch reef (Tanjung Raya).

Some people will be thinking..."WHAT?!?!!? SEMAKAUUU?!?!?!?!?! Isn't that where all our rubbish go to?? Isn't that...like...REALLY GROSS?!?!"
And some others will go..."HAR?! Semakau? Where HAR? Is it part of Singapore?"
And SOME, like the informed volunteers and divers we get go..."WOOHOOO SEMAKAU!!!"

Semakau used to be one of the RICHEST and NICEST reefs in Singapore. With an extensive reef flat extending far into the sea during low low tides, Semakau not only owns a coral reef ecosystem, but also a rich seagrass AND mangrove habitats! Not bad for a landfill huh?

Here's what we found at the FRINGING REEF!!!!

Results of survey done at reef crest of fringing reef of Semakau (shallow).

PLEASE HOLD ON FOR DEEP TRANSECT RESULTS. COMPLETE DATA NOT IN YET.

Semakau's fringing reef live coral cover used to be 50+% in 1988...A big difference huh. Sigh. We really got to protect what we have left man!!!!

Semakau's fringing reef is very nice although the coral cover is not that great. There is a lot of algae (seaweed) growing all over the place. The network of Sargassum (seasonal seaweed. NO, not edible) skeletons has become a base for other algae to grow on.

But still, it holds a charm of its own. The network of algae becomes a haven for fishes, especially filefishes such as these:

The radial filefish (Acreichthys radiatus) and...

The bristle-tailed filefish (Acreichthys tomentosus) (both photos courtesy of Debby Ng of Hantu Bloggers.

Razor fishes!

And...urm...other odd looking creatures...for instance THIS ONE...ehehehe...

Anyway, joking aside, we also saw...LOTSA LOTSA NUDIBRANCHS!!!!! SO PRETTY!!!! Like THESE ONES!!!

Flabellina sp. (photo by Tse-Lynn)

Phyllidea sp. (photo by Tse-Lynn)

Chromodoris lineolata.

AND POLYCLAD FLATWORMS TOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Pseudoceros sp.

Pseudoceros bimarginatus

Although there weren't as much corals as it used to... we could still see BABY CORALS all over the place!

Cute Pectinia baby coral....awwwww

And a cute baby Anchor coral (Euphyllia).

And STAGHORN CORALS!

We also encountered THREE BIGGGG HUUUGGEEE GROUPERS!!!!! HALF A METER LONG!!!!! But it was in a....

Bubuh...which obviously have not been checked recently...we brought this one up.

After the survey! Notice the bubuh on the bottom right...

Jeffrey Low (NPARKS), also found another bubuh at the PATCH REEF. This one was WORSE... there were SOOOOOO many butterflyfishes in the bubuh...

Butterflyfishes and seabass too!

And a six banded angelfish!!!!!!

But, just to get into perspective of things. There's probably quite a number of fishermen using bubuhs in Singapore, but the amount of damage done by the bubuhs collectively cannot compare to the damage done by just a SINGLE dredging unit, or reclamation work.

Not that I am endorsing bubuhs, just that I have been featuring bubuhs quite a bit lately, and don't want to make the wrong impression that this is the main factor that causes the degradation of our reefs. I mean, compared to decades back, there is probably much fewer fishermen using bubuhs nowadays. Get my drift get my drift???

Anyway, back to the Reef Friends survey now...

The Semakau PATCH REEF seems to be in better condition than the FRINGING REEF:

Results of survey for Semakau patch reef at reef crest (shallow)

Results of survey for Semakau patch reef at reef slopw (deep)...A lot of sponges huh...

There were really nice large coral colonies at the shallow transect of the patch reef...

Colony of Pachyseris sp.

MASSIVE Astreopora coral colony!!!! SO BIIGG!!!

Jeffrey also saw this REALLY cool sight... Cardinal fishes are mouth brooders. What does that mean? It means that they keep their EGGS in their MOUTHS. Specifically the MALE cardinalfishes...

LOOK AT THE ENLARGED POUCH! There's EGGS INSIDE!!!!!! HAHAHA! SO COOL!!!

AMAZING RIGHT!!!!!!

AND WHAT IS EVEN MORE AMAZING... IS THAT JEFF'S TEAM... SAW A BARRAMUNDI COD!!!!! HUGE ONE!!! HANGING AROUND A 2m SEAFAN!!!!!!!! OOH MMYYY GAAWWDDD... I was HYPERVENTILATING when I heard that... AND OH SO JEALOUS!!! You can imagine.... it was so exciting! Barramundi cods are REALLY shy creatures and even ELSEWHERE IN THE WORLD THEY ARE REALLY HARD TO COME BY! And here is one... BY TRANSECT NO. 3... SEMAKAU PATCH REEF!!!

And if you think I am kidding you... I KID YOU NOT... HERE IS THE PRRROOOOOFFFF!!!!!!

WAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH....... SO EXCITING!!!!!!!

After all that, it was time to go back, and we still had to REEL BACK all the darn tapes! There was a bit of a current, but it was finally over!

Zee reeling back the tape...

THAT'S ALL FOLKS! See you next time!!!

OH BY THE WAY, SEMAKAU IS REOPENED FOR RECREATION!!!! See news HERE. WOOOHOO!!!

DIVING WITH THE HANTU BLOGGERS!

2005-03-01T23:22:00.000+08:00

Well, this blog is LOONNGGG overdue...but it's better late than never right? Ehehee....

On the 6th of Feb, Sunday, I had a sudden ITCHINESS to go diving. So I went along with the HANTU BLOGGERS!

Dropped Debby an email and after some trouble 'cos I lost my phone and was uncontactable, we finally managed to confirm this and that!

And I was on my way...to MY FIRST EVER OFFICIAL LEISURE DIVE IN SINGAPORE!!!!!!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!!!

There's a LOT of FIRSTS in these two dives that I made at Pulau Hantu with the Debster and the Seahounds!

My FIRST time going so deep in Singapore waters: 21m.

My FIRST gorgonian shrimp EVER:

GORGONIAN SHRIMP!

And then my SECOND and THIRD one later in the day. In total, we saw FOUR gorgonian shrimps!

My FIRST allied cowry EVER:

NICE!

HEART STOPPING!! It was SOOOO TINY!

My FIRST COMET!!!!!

Le COMET!!

When I saw this fish, I thought it was a MORAY EEL. Turns out, it was even BETTER! It's a COMET! According to my videographer friend, if you see one of these fellows, you're really lucky! Amazing stuff at Hantu! And he can't wait to video it!

I also saw my FIRST......

Dead...feather star (commatulid crinoid)...

Sigh... sad huh...

Well, I also saw this REALLY nice nudibranch! PRETTYYYYYYY AIN'T ITT.....

Hyselodoris bullockii

All in all it was a MAGNIFICENT DIVE! And what's better, 'cos the bloggers are so familiar with the area, it's like having EXTREMELY great guides with you who, for one, not only KNOW the reef, but also what and where the reef flora and fauna are.

It's not just the diving, but also the insight that the Hantu Bloggers can give you about Singapore's reefs (in particular Hantu's reefs) and about being an environmentally and ecologically aware diver (as all divers should be).

CHEERS, MAN! CHEERS TO GREAT DIVING! CHEERS TO PULAU HANTU! AND CHEERS TO THE HANTU BLOGGERS!

LABRADOR: The life beneath!

2005-02-08T21:17:00.000+08:00

LABRADOR PARK. One of our LAST natural rocky shores on Singapore. A lot has been said about labrador park at these sites:

Labrador Park Blog
National Parks Board on Labrador Park
Labrador Park on WILDSINGAPORE

And I *KNOW* there's many more so these are just a few of those that I think give punched packed information!

All these sites are about the rich intertidal habitat at Labrador, but noone has really documented what's UNDERWATER off Labrador before. The last coral reef survey that was done there was in the late 1980s! Since then, noone's really sure...

***OOPS!!! MY BAD! I just checked, and there was actually a survey conducted off Labrador Beach in 2000! Documenting LIVE CORAL COVER of ~23%!***

So on the 4th of Feb (Yes, the MURKY WATERS day) we decided to dive at Labrador! To, again, document fluroscence (see previous entry on SJ Night Dive) with Abby, Dionne, Tse-Lynn and Jim Wong.

After a whole lot of calling and asking for proper research permits and permissions from NParks (because Labrador is a protected area and you are not suppose do anything without proper permits), we had clearance. Since it was so last minute, we couldn't get the ranger to let the gate be opened till later. The gate to the beach entrance gets locked at 8pm. We had to HURRY!

We RUSHED to Labrador, quickly loading all our gears, tanks and barangs onto the truck. And off we went!

Our barang barang!

Since ALL of us were diving (I had initially volunteered to be on land...but HOW COULD I RESIST!!! LABRADOR!!! Too tempting!), we had to minimise the amount of barangs we lugged around. So we decided to gear up at the carpark. I think it must have been quite a sight for the bride and groom in full wedding attire taking wedding photos in the area... The ice cream uncle seemed quite entertained though....

Squeezzinng into wetsuits...

Bemused ice cream uncle in background...haha...

After settling things like buddies... who does what... who holds what torchlight... and emergency plans... we were IN the water! It was more of a DUSK dive... By this time, it was about 7pm. Sunset time...

Off the beach...into the water...It's high tide so you float and avoid stepping on the bottom as much as possible...

Check out the background...

The jetty!

"Labrador waters....eeeeeee....and COOOLLDD"

A view of labrador beach not many people have...

But SURPRISINGLY, taking into account that there are a lot of boat traffic in the area, and that it's so near to shipping ports, the visibility was a stunning 2.5m (at least!). It was COOL! I could see the bottom from the surface of the water!

And OFF we went to do work first...Dionne and I were suppose to help Jim document fluorescence...Dionne held the torch, Jim the video and I the camera...

This is a sample of what we took... so prettyyy.....

White light.

Blue filter added.

Yellow filter added.

This Platygyra sp. (maze coral) fluoresces very nicely! And so BRIGHT too!

I didn't only get to see fluorescence, but also some marine creatures that's pretty cool!

Labrador is surprisingly interesting. There were large huge colonies of corals, mainly Turbinaria sp. and Montipora sp. ones. But there were also large colonies of Porites sp. corals! With scrape marks on them made by grazing fishes. It all looks very pretty.

There was no reef crest and the corals seem to taper off at about 4m. After that, it's all sand and silt. We think this is probably because it is a busy shipping channel and all that surge displaces all that sand and silt upshore... Seeing how I expected it to be quite void of life, it was a pleasant surprise that beneath all that (the old jetty, the ships passing by, the surge...) there is still a lot of life!

Like this cute COWRY!

COWRY!

And this REALLY cute copperbanded butterflyfish...my favourite!

Copperbanded butterflyfish.

It was so CUTE!! because it seeemed like it was GUARDING this cowry!!! Awww! Let's make it a Labrador Park Watch honorary member!

I also saw this SLEEPING FILEFISH! I realised that when it was sleeping... it had a very brownish colour and blended very well with its surroundings. It also seemed to have nicely lodged itself in this nook in a rock...

A sleeping filefish...

But as it began to wake up...(SORRY SORRY SORRY!!!!!!!!! I think the camera flashes must have been too disturbing!!!)...it changed colour! It began to have splotches of YELLOW!

Filefish...waking up...

FULLY AWAKE and YELLOW!!!!

Just underneath the rock where the filefish was sleeping (emphasis on WAS), there was a sleeping RABBITFISH! awww so cuuutteee.....

Again, coral polyps at night. They're OUT! And feeding! During the day, they retract into the calcium carbonate skeleton and let the zooxanthellae (symbiotic algae living with the corals) do the work...providing 90% of its food source.

While we were doing what we did...Abby and Tse-Lynn were suppose to do a recce of the reef crest. If there were any in the first place. They were swimming around...and they hit THIS:

A FISH TRAP (BUBUH)!!!! SO MANY RABBIT FISHES AND BUTTERFLYFISHES TRAPPED!!!!!

LABRADOR IS PROTECTED AREA AND A BUBUH IS SURE NOT SUPPOSE TO BE DEPLOYED THERE!!! Furthermore, by the looks of how many fishes there were in there, it hasn't been recently checked! It's so absurd!!

So they asked me for my knife (my poor knife is probably BLUNT now...) to cut big hole in the bubuh. It's OK, my knife for the fishes... it's a fair trade... It's an old knife anyway... more reason to get a new knife... ehehehe....=P

At LEAST two species of butterflyfishes were trapped in the bubuh! The copperbanded and...

...I couldn't make this one out...but it's different!

We would have LOOVVEEEDD to take it out. But it was at NIGHT, we were RUSHING to get out of the water in case the park ranger LOCKS us in the beach area... and the darn bubuh was just TOO big! Yeah, it was a BIG bubuh!

In any case, we have informed the NParks personnels who will have manpower and time to retrieve it.

At the end of the dive...

Surfacing into the night...

That was the end of our exciting, fun filled, work packed and also tiring day...

BTW, earlier in the day, we had an aborted dive out to Raffles and then had two dives at Hantu. So it was quite a tiring, but exciting day...

Our stomachs RUMBLING, we headed for some place to eat nearby. But the bad news was...we didn't have a lot of cash with us...I, for one, had NONE! So we pooled all our cash together and had a SCRUMPTIOUS meal!!!!!! The food tasted DARN GOOD!!!! Must be the labrador water aftertaste....

Pooling what we had...You can see marine biologists don't get paid much...Yeaps...that's true...

NIGHT DIVE! off Saint' John's Jetty!

2005-02-08T15:11:00.000+08:00

This is actually a back log... I dived at the Saint John's Island jetty on the night of the 2nd of Feb!

Anyway, the day before, Dionne and I finally completed our final project report! So I was SO wanting to do something fun and exciting! Which, as usual, was decided upon quite on the last minute.

All our barangs (and Abby) for just ONE NIGHT'S stay...mostly it's JIM's (videographer).>

What else more exciting than a NIGHT DIVE in Singapore...and a JETTY DIVE to boot!

I am a chicken. I admit. I HATE diving in places with man-made structures like jetties and wrecks. It's eerie. It's scary. It makes my skin crawl. Somemore, it's at NIGHT. Brrr....although I might not look it, I had moths (it's night time see...) in my stomach...

At least I think I'm still better than JIM. Jim is a videographer who is documenting fluorescence for Dr. Elizabeth Taylor from TMSI. He is also an avid videographer of Singapore waters! Cool eh... Or should I say...COLD. HE WAS WEARING A DRY SUIT FOR GOODNESS SAKE!

JIM IN A DRY SUIT! IN SINGAPORE!! The water was like 28 degrees lah... maybe 27 at least.

But the VIS was gorgeous! We went down to 9m and it was still so clear! I think a good approximation would be AT LEAST 3m. Fantastic...

So we went down...and shot fluorescence! THIS is what fluorescence looks like. You have to use a blue filter and a yellow filter to be able to see the nice flowing effect... BTW, don't mistake FLUORESCENCE (emitting light during exposure to radiation from an external source) with BIOLUMINESCENCE (emit light naturally, on its own).

A normal coral in normal white light.

With the BLUE filter.

With the YELLOW filter...you only see the part that fluoresces

More glowing corals!

A mushroom coral flurorescing...

Pectinia sp.

Turbinaria sp.

And ZOANTHIDS glow too!!!

And Tse-Lynn and I were about to take the photo of a nice Tubastrea sp. (cave coral) coral, I saw a silhoette of something....which....kiinnnnndddddaaaa lookkkksss like a.... SEAHOOORRSEEE!!!!!!!!!

So I was like going MMMMMM....MMMM..MMM...MMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!MMMMM!!!!! (translate: SEAAA....HOOOORRSSEE...SEEEAAA!!!!! HOOORSEE!!!!!)

And this Tse-Lynn was so nonchalant. She kept shining the blue light and didn't even take her camera! (I later found out she though I was getting excited at the fluorescing sponge next to it...)

Anyway, the seahorse nicely drapped itself around the cave coral like so:

MMMM!!!! MMMMM!!!!

AND what more, IT WAS PREGNANT!!!!

Yes, it fell into a cloud of silt below the cave coral...

After that... I was SOOO ready to explore every nook and cranny of the darn jetty!!! And look what else we found!!!!

Pretty ain't it...

--------COMMERCIAL BREAK---------

COMING SOON! AKAN DATANG!

THE POLYCLAD FLATWORM WHO TRIED...

Once upon a time, there was a little polyclad flatworm...travelling as happy as a bee...

"Lalalala...lalala...OH NO ARGHHH What is this HUGE GAP DOING HERE!! I must, I must cross it...I muuussttt...

"Hoookaayy... let's see now..."

"STREEETTCCCHHH!!!!!!! SSSTTREEETTCCHHH!!!!!"

"URRGHHHH!!!! UuuuuuUUUrrrrgghHHHH!!!!"

"....ahh forget it... I'll just go the long way...it's too much work"

THE END

--------------------------NOW BACK TO THE PROGRAMME--------------------------------

Yes... and there were LOADS of other things we saw!! LIKE THESE!!!

A nice cute pipefish....this thing fluoresces too ya know!

Cute little crab....

AND TWO COWRIES!!!!!! SO SHIINNNYYYYYY!!!! SHINY SHINY SHINY!!!

Your copper banded butterfly fish

This damselfish wasn't scared at all!!! I was SOOO NEAAARR to it!!

Awww isn't this baby lizardfish cuuutteee!!!

A cloud of hydroids (which stung me VERY badly on my hand...can still see the scars), home to TONNES of these tiny spider crabs!

And at night...corals are OUT and they look different from during the day! It's SO PRETTY!!!! The polyps are out!

Tubastrea sp.

And at night... CORAL WAR is ongoing!! Competing for food and/or space and warding off competitors, some corals have what is known as SWEEPER TENTACLES.

Corals can have longer fighting polyps which can be even 5 times longer than common ones. Fighting polyps have fighting (sweeper) tentacles much longer than common ones. These sweeper tentacles are armed with many more nematocysts (stinging cells) than normal coral polyps.

Essentially, they kill/injure whatever coral/algae that is within these tentacle's range. What you see in the day is just probably a border of dead coral between, say, two corals... But AT NIGHT, it's when the ACTION is all happening!

Sweeper tentacles...going for another coral...

Closer view...

Even CLOSER!!! Look at them sweeper tentacles!

And after an hour plus dive, we surfaced and ABBY prepared us some cut fruits to replace the energy we shivered off....

Abby, Jim and Tse-Lynn...

AFTER THIS DIVE! I can safely say I would LOVE to dive more at JETTIES! Especially if you combine with the last RAFFLES LIGHTHOUSE dive.

Murky waters...

2005-02-04T21:42:00.000+08:00

After that Freakin' Solid Dive at Raffles Lighthouse, we decided to go back there as soon as we had another chance to. The currents were right on the 4th of Feb! And off we went on the bumboat, a one and a half hour ride to the southern-est island of Singapore. Pulau Satumu, also known as Raffles Lighthouse, has always been a haven for work and fun for us.

One of our best best bestest sites among all our other work/survey sites. After showing all those great photos, Priscila decided to come along to do her work. And Dionne, after finishing our LONG LONNNNGGG and TIIRING final project report, came along too to enjoy some sun, sea and divin' in our own waters while helping out with the work for that day. But LO AND BEHOLD! What was what greated us as we approch our beloved site...

The beginning of the sediment cloud...

Oohh....need I say more?

As we approach Raffles Lighthouse...

The muck just surrounds the whole island

The exact same area where we dived just two weeks ago.

All the photos were NOT in any way photoshopped or altered using computer...

If I did, it'll look like THIS. Bad huh. THE CONTRAST!

WHY!!!! WHYYYYY!!!?!?!??!

We wave goodbye, hoping to see Raffles on a clearer day. Soon.

The visibility was so bad... barely 20 CM! When I put my hand in the water, I couldn't even SEE it. Even the first rung of the ladder in the water wasn't visible. And THIS was from a 4m VIS just barely two weeks ago. Some works must have begun. That's the end of good visbility days. Imagine all those magnificent marine life being suffocated under all that sediment. All those filter feeders... all those fishes... all those crinoids... all those flatworms... all those fishes...

These marine creatures cannot speak for themselves, but YOU CAN.

Want to comment on policies related to development works in Singapore coastal areas? Send feedback to:

Government Consultation Portal Feedback Unit, click on General
Feedback under Feedback Channels
email them at feedback_unit@mcds.gov.sg
snail mail: The Feedback Unit, MCDS Building, #14-00 512 Thomson
Road, Singapore 298136

Also, it's been a bumper crop of news articles about marine nature issues in Singapore! The coral reefs of the Southern Islands and Pulau Hantu in particular are highlighted in Straits Times, full article linked below.

Like what you read and want to see more articles on nature in Singapore? Send your comments to the ST Forum- stforum@sph.com.sg

The Straits Times, 4 Feb 05
Hantu coral life dying out fast
by Radha Basu
Full report: http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/index.php?entry=/marine/20050204-hantucoraldying.txt

FREAKIN' SOLID DIVE!! Raffles Lighthouse

2005-01-19T21:56:00.001+08:00

TODAY, was the day I REALLY didn't want to get out of bed. It was too early in the morning to go diving in cold cold waters. Especially when it's a work dive. We dived two days ago and it was so tiring... Came home and just shacked out till the next morning...And TODAY, I really didn't want to dive.

BUT! But but but but but....TODAY I AM SO THANKING MY LUCKY STARS I DRAGGED MY A** OUT OF BED. COS! Cos cos cos cos cos.... IT WAS SUCH A GREAT DIVE!!! I haven't even blogged about my last dive but I CANNOT WAIT ANY LONGER. I JUST HAVE TO BLOG THIS DIVE FIRST.

IT'S! It's it's it's it's... JUST SO GREAT! What a GREAT way to start the year man! This dive WAYYYYY beats ANY of the dives I have had so far this year! Although this is essentially only my second dive of the new year...ehehe... but STILL SO GREAAAAATTTTT!!! GREAT GREAT GREAT!!! Vis was 4m! AT LEAST! It's WHOOAAA WHOOAAHH.... Not only the VIS, but the ABUNDACE AND DVERSITY OF MARINE LIFE IS SO...so so so so... ASTOUNDING! So WONDERFUL! When I first descended I though... WHOOOWWW... IS THIS FOR REAL?! Is this SINGAPORE?! But YES! YES IT IS!

What greeted me when I first descended...OOHHHH *melts*

*SNAP* YES!!! IT WAS THAT RED!!! My fave colour!

*SNAP* Just in case you didn't believe my first two photos...hehe

What a REEF!

I took this when I was at 5m...YOU CAN SEE THE SURFACE! Sunlight streaming in....Siigghh

THE FISHES! So many!

And so many gorgonians! Must be the currents...It...got...pretty strong...ehehe

This one had a crinoid (feather star) among its pretty branches...awww

Seawhips and gorgonians...SO COLOURFUL! SO PRETTY!

And don't forget the fishes!

THERE WERE SO MANY FISHES! It's most definitely because of the vis that you don't really see fishes in Singapore. But once the vis makes a turn for the better, it's a whole different world man! Not only were there the usual gobies and colourful damselfishes, but there were SCHOOLS of rabbitfishes, fusiliers and snappers! Well, not large schools by themselves... but these fishes schooled together... It was incredible!

I also saw THREE spotted sweetlips...which were quite sizable and so PRETTYY... and a big grouper that promptly went to hide under a rock. It was camera shy, I guess. And there was this ROPE! Look for yourself!

Whooahhh fiishhiiess...

And there were small little fishies too...

Your tomato anemonefish...there were also a lot of anemones with the false clownfish too!! =)

I literally chased after this six banded angelfish (Pomacanthus sextriatus...what a name huh haha) to get you evidence...

And sergeant majors! Reminds me of diving Okinawa! *sniff*

It was all a nice, relaxing reef scene...UNTIL...

I GOT THE SHOCK OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SERIOUSLY... I was so busy looking at other things... I didn't see what was in front of me... and swam RIGHT INTO THIS!!!

A WHOLE SCHOOL OF DIAMOND FISH (Monodactylus argenteus. Also called the Silver batfish. A WHOLE FREAKIN' LARGE SCHOOL!

I had the DARN video to SHOW it too... BUT I ACCIDENTALLY DELETED IT...*WAIL*!!! If anyone knows how to retrieve accidentally deleted stuff from your CF card... PLEEEEAAZZEEEE PLLLEEAAAZZEEEE LET ME KNOW!!!! Sobs...Sooobbsss...

BTW, we saw it at the jetty area... that's where these fishes normally hang out. See the pillars? SO COOL! But very eerie jetty...urgh...about 8.sth m.

But we also saw this at the jetty...really sad...

Lots of discarded sacks and trash!

And THIS! A CAR BATTERY! Imagine the acid that it holds...what damage it can do...haiz...

A cushion star by a discarded fish net...

Anyway, do you believe that THIS is actually Singapore. But it's true! We have such rich marine life right at our doorstep but it's really sad when very few people actually realise this. Even if the vis is bad, it's STILL THERE. Not seeing it doesn't mean it's not there. Even if a tree falls in the forest and noone hears it, we can still see the evidence of it later. So if our corals die but noone witnesses it, doesn't mean that the issue is not real. We will still see the impacts later on. Less fish, less marine life...or some other real impact that has not manifested yet...

Well, back to more happy photos... Ooohh.... Ahh.... PRETTYYYY.....

Look at that...high coral cover! THIS is what we need to protect!

I love corals....awww....

Doesn't it give you a sense of calllmmmness....

Huge OLD colonies!

Aaahhh.....Grandpa coral...

Overall, a pretty reef.

WE SAW NUDIBRANCHS TOO!!!! But the other pics I took were very shaky. Probably from the excitement hehe!

OH AND WE SAW THIS FLATWORM THAT WAS BIGGER THAN MY HAND! MY WHOLLLLEE HAND... fingers and ALL!!! WHOOAHHH......

AND MORE CRINOIDS!! This one had reflective goldish flecks...was sooo prettyyy....

And one that looked like a LOTUS!

Don't you think...LOTUS...

CLOSE UP! IT WAS THIS RED!!!!!!!! I AM NOT KIDDING YOU!

Oh... and THIS TSE-LYNN (my buddy)...

Tse-Lynn...

SCARED ME HALF TO WITS! By SNEAKING up to me... (probably unintentionally)... TO SHOW ME THIS!

HUGE GIANT UNGLY THING WITH ONE CLAW

It wasn't alive though...It was just a moult... MEANS IT GREW... EVEN BIGGER!!!! Look at that claw man...*droolllss*

Evil Tse-Lynn behind the corals...

BACK TO PHOTOS! LOOK AT THIS GORGONIAN/SEA FAN! HUGE!

A white colour one... so prettyyy!!!!

A RED one!

....and a DARN HUGE ONE!!!! This was probably as tall as I am!

Ahhh............................................I wanna dive again.....Haven't had this feeling of wanting to DIVE AGAIN for some time....It's so magical.... ARGHHHH.....I WANNA DIVE I WANNA DIVE I WANNA DIVE!!!!! Doesn't look like a work dive though right? BUT IT WAS! We did our work... WHILE doing all these things too!! Perks of the job... EHEHEHEHHEHEHEHE....
Can't wait to dive again... DIVE DIVE DIVE!! DIVE DIVE DIVE!!! WOOHOOO! =)

Oh not to forget the important people that were there doing work with me! ehehe...

Tse-Lynn...of course...

And JEFF! Ooohh... how stroonngg....hahaha

And...Elsie...who blackmailed me to delete her nice FRONTAL shot so all I am left with is her back view. NOT the one in trunks.

And our trusty Mr. Loh! Our boatman! When the MUDSKIPPER is out of commission, THIS CAPTAIN takes over and gives us a ride to whereever we need to go! We SALUTE YOU! And his 4D winning lucky boat!

Well, that's it folks...and yeaps... sorry no close up shots cos was reeling too much from the dive... whehehehe.... My only advice is... TAKE A CHANCE! TRY DIVING IN OUR OWN WATERS! You'll be SURPRISED what you can see and find! DON'T GIVE UP IF THE VIS IS NOT ON YOUR SIDE...Try diving again! Once you are confident about diving in Singapore waters, then you'll be confident diving anywhere else...pretty much...

AAWWWRGHHGRGGGR SO PRETTY RIGHT... haiz.... it's soooooooooooooo wonderful.... I am SO glad I got out of bed this morning....