The resurrection of Lazarus?

In John 11:1-46 of the Bible, Jesus resurrected Lazarus even though he was dead.

In Singapore, Lazarus Island was also dead because part of it has been reclaimed to make an artificial sandy lagoon filled with sand imported from Indonesia.

Time will often give an answer and indeed life has crept back to a lifeless lagoon over the many years. The artifical lagoon of Lazarus is alive! Even at the breakwater which Daniel and I explored for the first time today.


Already hardly found in mainland Singapore, I love the fact that I can still find common sea stars (Archaster typicus) on this shore.


Most of the common sea stars there are juveniles and I also did find adult ones. Looks like they are establishing themselves quite well.


There were many Cake sand dollars (Arachnoides placenta) on the sandy shore but alas I cannot find any rare sand dollars.


There were also several piles of processed sand from this Acorn worm (Class Enteropneusta).


Interestingly, there are also soldier crabs (Dotilla sp.) that look like they are doing guard duty by prowling on the sandy shore and raising their claws when they feel threatened.


Another interesting sight will be the gang of snails having a buffet of this venus clam. Looks like it is really a yummy time!


The shore also has seagrass beds mainly of spoon seagrass (Halophila ovalis) similar to those at some Northern shores.

And yes, for the first time I explored the rocks off the breakwater.


The rocks beyond the reclaimed breakwater does seemingly look lifeless.


But I was amazed to find some colours in the water mainly from the seaweed. I did spot few corals in the deeper waters. Beyond Lazarus is actually Kusu Island.


Today was quite a flatworm day instead of a nudi day. Daniel studied nudibranch before and but we couldn't find any nudibranch today though.


It seems to be the season for the Brown flatworm (Pseudobiceros gratus) for we found at least four today. A closer look at the flatworm reveals some orange network structure in the middle just beneath the middle brown line. I wonder what are those.


Daniel was very patient as he explored the rocky area by flipping over rocks to find creatures. His hardwork was paid off with this tiny cute little Blue-lined flatworm (Pseudoceros sp.). It has a little blue circle-dot at the head.


Colonial anemones like the zoanthids were also spotted among the rocks.


Zebra coral (Oulastrea crispata) was found attached on rocks and they are thought to be rather hardy, as they can be found in all sort of shores.


Two of this giant carpet anemone (Stichodactyla gigantea) were found in between rocks but I reckon they were too high for nemos to reside during low tide.


Among the rocky area, another species of seagrass was found and that's the Sickle seagrass (Thalassia hemprichii). It's good that we can find this seagrass since it is listed as 'Critically Endangered' on the Red List of threatened plants of Singapore.


On a single rock with silt, there were several oyster shells, some I think are still alive.


I guess the find of the day for me personally will be this snail that I've not took notice before. Chee Kong says it is Astraea calcar and they are known to be less common than Turban snails. They have a calcified operculum according to A Guide to Common Seashells of Singapore. Locality of these snails are in southern islands of Singapore.

Today's trip to Lazarus was great, I also saw an octopus though it slipped away as quickly as I noticed it. All too soon, the time is up.


I had to leave soon while Daniel, being a diehard explorer, continued to take a longer look at the shore beside the St John's Island jetty instead as the low tide was not over. He told me he found cowries and hairy crab before I left.


A closer reveals several large boulder corals near the water edge. Cool! I will look forward to look at this shore the next time.