Sleepy humans, lively Sisters

Another low tide arrives and at a very early morning of Vesak Day, the gang set off from Marina South Pier at 3.15am for Big Sisters Island. That means we all got actually very minimal or for some, even no sleep.


Today's tide wasn't very low but good enough to see lots of fishes swimming in the lagoon. As usual I am horrible in fish ids. It will be great if there's help to get them identified.


This is the clearest shot of a fish about 8cm in length.


There was a very nice reef fish which was spotted before at Little Sisters, I took out my camera, and when I snapped, it already was swimming away. Sigh, this is the only shot I have.


Moving over from fishy business, we have the sticky business. This black sea cucumber ejects white threads when disturbed. And Jerald was asking at the end of the trip what happened to his track pants with lots of white sticky thread. We bet he has stepped on one unknowingly. Ouch.


Evelyn and Vyna were marvelling at the crabs making out aka mating. The male is huge as you can see.


Another crab here which is not as commonly seen, the mosaic crab. It is not edible okay, if you want to ask can eat or not. But you can eat anything if you want, at least once.


There were a lot of flatworms! This tiny one was spotted by Vyna.


Yet another one by Vyna!


This bigger black with orange dots flatworms was discovered by Yuchen.


And finally I found a totally black coloured flatworm with orange fringing at the sides.


We also encountered the leaf slug which I didn't bother to take a photograph given the not so low tide and murky waters when we stepped around. But I managed to take a photo of this Glossodoris atromarginata nudibranch.


I was looking at a toadfish with Evelyn (no photos, too murky) and then Jerald and Vyna called me as they found an octopus. And when the octopus was moving it, it looks impressive.


This is the SAME octopus, but totally different coloured compared to previous photo. They are indeed master of camouflage.


Liana pointed out to a snail that has a pink shell and beside it is a baby anemone that is very small. Very cute.


This snail is interesting as it is bright orange in colour and I've not seen it before.


Turning it over, we found that it is alive!


There was another snail found by Chay Hoon and this one is really pretty. I'm sure Ria will blog more about it soon.


Beside the pile of acorn worm pool, Chay Hoon and I found this slimy long thing. Could this be the acorn worm itself? I wonder.


Anemones are cute, including this tiny one. We also saw the Gigantea and Haddon's carpet anemones.


I believe the FIND of the day is this giant clam (Tridacna squamosa) growing on top of faviid coral. This species can be distinguished by the presence of large leaf-like fluted edges on its shell called 'scutes'.


A closer look reveals the mantle tissues which acts as a habitat for the symbiotic single-celled dinoflagellate algae (zooxanthellae) providing a major portion of its nutrition. During the day, the clam spreads out its mantle tissue so that the algae receive the sunlight they need to photosynthesize.


Moving the attention more to homosapiens, here's Evelyn's sketch on the sand, Big Sister aka Da Jie Dao in chinese.


Most of us were quite sleepy especially towards the end... Haha, especially Liana :X


Yuchen got cut by an unknown object and immediately, he received medical attention from many of us. That's how efficient and helpful we can be.


I believe he has lost a bit of blood. Arrgh.


As the tide returns, a morning glow shines behind St Johns Island.


And its a very beautiful sunrise!


Stunning sunrise over St John Island.


More sunrise, this time taken together with Singapore Straits.


And the sleepy humans continue to catch up with their sleep while the lively Sisters shore continue to thrive and embrace the start of a new day.