What caught my first sight are these carpet anemones, that come in different sizes and colors. I'm glad that though BB is situated right in front of the mouth of Johor river, it still has life teeming after the mass mortality event in January, though not as much as before.
Saw several sea pens stuck into the substrate. Couldn't find any crabs in between though.
This slug was first discovered by Marcus and next, November, Walter, Dr Chua and I came over and take a good look. We were baffled and have no idea till Chay Hoon came and told us more about this. I'm so sorry I forgot the name again. Glad Chay Hoon updated that its Polybranchia orientalis. Thanks!
Has been some time I've seen Gong gong in the act of flipping over.
This must be the find of the day for me. Because I've been longing to see this! Yes, it's the knobbly seastar which used to be commonly found in Pulau Sekudu and Chek Jawa. However, it seems that these seastars were wiped out after the mass mortality early this year. So relieved that they are still doing ok in BB. What a discovery.
How can we forget the classic knobbly seastar group photo? Here we have the elated November, Walter and I (right to left).
What a starry night we have... and here's a biscuit seastar and...
a sandstar with nice patterns on its body. This guy moves quickly and stealthily as November commented.
(Top left to bottom right)
1. I don't know what is the white-pinkish thing stuck to the seaweed. Can anyone help?
2. Marcus and I also don't know what is this reddish hydroid-looking thing. The size is around a 50 cents coin.
3. Nice sponge that is lime green in colour.
4. Hydroids are aplenty in BB. If you don't wear long pants, you might get stung by it and get very ugly scars.
Ria spotted this weird looking purplish sea cucumber which I don't know the id.
Another wonderful discovery and yes its my first time seeing this sandfish sea cucumber. This kind of sea cucumber is quite large and it is the kind people eat during Chinese new year etc. But it has to be processed from toxin before declared being edible.
Through Andy, I managed to catch a sight of this blue-spotted nudibranch. It is about 6cm and feeds and sucks sponge by dissolving with its digestive juices into a soup.
Over at a pool of water, where the rest were gathering, I went to take a look and they found a seahorse!
BB is unlike most northern shores. It is more special as in you can find corals. And here's some hard corals enocuntered.
I believe this flowery soft coral is very pretty and it looks like a bunch of cauliflower don't you agree? This one is quite big and we were glad to find it. Saw another more orangey and smaller one too.
Over at Chay Hoon's side, a nudibranch was found and its Armina semperi. My first time seeing it. Nudibranchs are always so cute and colourful and it always remind me that our God is not a boring God, he created all these beautiful creatures for us to live with on earth.
Walter and Andy were having a good time with this silvery fish leaping and jumping around in low waters. Ria jokingly commented that this is a medium-sized nasi lemak fish.
Three hours passed very fast and we made our amphibious boarding of the bumboat. It was up to our waist and that means wet underpants day! Though the sunrise is not specutacular at all, it's still nice to see a brand new day emerge with light on the sky. For every new day, God's mercies are new.
As the bumboat passes by Chek Jawa, managed to take a snapshoot of the front and rear beacon and the boardwalk that hugs this precious shore that Team seagrass will be visiting tomorrow.
Beting Bronok was quite quiet today compared to its former glory. Let's hope it'll recover.
More on how BB was like on the wildfilms blog.
Hi Kok Sheng,
ReplyDeletethe slug is Polybranchia orientalis. :o)
thanks Chay hoon!
ReplyDelete