Sunny Sunday at Southern Semakau

Though it was a Sunny Sunday out at Southern Semakau (4S's), there was still quite a number of marine critters that we came across on this trip!

Semakau is one of the special shores in Singapore where we find different habitats close to each other, ranging from mangroves, seagrass lagoon, sandy shores, coral rubble and of course the reef!

Fun with friends with good visibility at Big Sister's Island

After several requests from friends who have seen my photos of marine life or blog posts of my island adventures, I decided to plan for an afternooon out to Big Sister's Island on the now-evening tides since the timing would be more earthly as compared to predawn low tides.

The weather was superb and we arrived the island with fishermen already out in action! Apparently, they were staying overnight at the jetty.

Two months of Chek Jawa adventures with dugong sighting!

I'm back on the monthly guided walks of Naked Hermit Crabs at Chek Jawa as a nature guide. Accompanying me on the trips for September and October are my student councillors who were present as part of the council's Excel leadership exposure programme.

It has been awesome hosting groups of fun loving new-found friends on the boardwalk of Chek Jawa, sharing with them some of the insights and interesting facts of this nature hideout.

Reefy splendor of Northern Semakau

Five years on and I'm back to survey the reefs of Northern Semakau with the intrepid team on this last predawn intertidal survey of the year. The last time I had a good look at this stretch of shore was in May 2008.

Situated opposite Terumbu Raya (also known as the Great Reef), this stretch of reef at Northern Semakau is full of life with lots of corals, anemones, fish, sponges etc etc. It looks like an underwater garden from this shot through my underwater camera.

A glimpse of the glorious beacon area at Chek Jawa

We are back at Chek Jawa on a predawn survey and focused on the coral rubble near the Chek Jawa front beacon. We were here last month but the tide was not low enough to document what lies out there.

The tide went out extensively and we were able to survey the coral rubble beyond the beacon itself. So how is this fragile but also richest stretch of Chek Jawa shore doing?

Surprises from Sekudu in not-so-low tide

Though the tide was not so low, we still stumbled upon several surprises on our final predawn survey to Pulau Sekudu this year! It was worth waking up for this 3am morning trip.

One of the surprises would be to find the source of the stray lone Common sea stars that we sometimes see on Sekudu. There was many of them found in a particular area and many of them are mating! This is a good sign. :)

National Day field trip at Pulau Semakau

We celebrated Singapore's 48th birthday at Pulau Semakau on National Day! And it was an awesome field trip because of the many spectacular finds.

We were also blessed with good weather despite of the unfavorable weather forecast. The sunrise landscape is simply gorgeous!