Changi shore- "Heavily utilised"

Today was one of the rare times when I visited Changi shore during a weekend evening. As expected there were lots of people on the shores. They consist of fishermen, people picking up creatures for seafood, children playing on the shores and even students doing research.

Indeed this tiny stretch of living shore is "heavily utilised"! At least today's kids were more sensible- they were nice to talk to, listened to my advices and knew not to disturb a sea cucumber when I told them it was stressed and slightly injured.


It was nice to get to know Peirong and another of her labmate (sorry forgot her name). They were working on sea cucumbers and sea stars on Changi, which explains the long lines of transect throughout the shore.

Here in this photo, a Thorny sea cucumber (Colochirus quadrangularis) was being measured.


Here's how the Thorny sea cucumber looks like when in the water where their feeding tentacles are nicely extended out to filter feed.


Another sea cucumber that was sighted will be this larger Smooth sea cucumber.


Like the sea cucumbers, sand dollars are also echinoderms. This is a Cake sand dollar (Arachnoides placenta).


I did not see any living Pink sand dollar (Peronella lesueuri) that was sighted lately this year but only this test of a dead specimen.


Weirdly, I did not see any Pencil sea urchins (Prionocidaris sp.)! However, one White sea urchins (Salmacis sp.) was found.


I was kind of disappointed to only see one Plain Sand star (Astropecten sp.) on the shore. No other stars were seen today.


Anemones wise, I found this tiny little Swimming anemone (Boloceroides mcmurrichi). When in season, one can easily find them in huge numbers.


One of the transect assistants found this Ball moon snail (Polinices didyma) that has a wide mantle body. This moon snail is able to inflat its mantle with sea water and thus when fully extended does indeed look like a full moon.


Jillian found this pretty snail- it is a Noble volute (Cymbiola nobilis). This snail is carnivorous! It can feed on other smaller snails!


Today, I came across quite a number of these Hammer oyster (Malleus sp.)! We first spotted them during my last trip here.


Interestingly, I saw a dead shell of what looks like a Sundial snail, which suggests living ones may reside on this shore.


While more dead shells of other snails are also taken up by hermit crabs as protections. Hehe!


Among the seaweed, we came across several egg cases of squids.


Stranded on the sand were some fishes- one of which will be a filefish.


While my friends were amazed to see how the Longspined scorpionfish (Paracentropogon longispinis) can raise its stout spines on the dorsal fins. These spines can act like hypodermic needles, injecting venom into the offending foot or hand if we mishandle the fish!


A "special" fishy find will be this plastic goldfish toy swept among the seagrasses. =_= Haha.

Somehow, the shore is quite quiet today in terms of marine life. But definitely crowded with humans! Hopefully all these human presence will not cause the health of the shore to deteriorate. It's good that super low tides do not occur every day. The marine life needs a respite!

Nevertheless, it was nice to have Jillan and Benjamin again to explore the shore. And also Joseph who visited our shores for his first time! Glad that they enjoyed the trip.

More photos of the trip here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/koksheng/archives/date-taken/2010/11/07/