Wild dolphins of Lovina, Bali

It's my first time seeing so many wild dolphins frolicking in the sea. This was one of the highlights of my Bali trip earlier this month.

This is one of my best shots of the pods of dolphins at Lovina, north of Bali. Lovina actually means I love Indonesia. And I love Lovina because of these magnificient but yet gentle dolphins.

Echinoderm haven at Sanur shore of Bali

Earlier this month, I was at Bali for my first time and one of the most anticipated itinerary event would be the self exploratory walk on the intertidal shores of Sanur. I was inspired to take a look at this huge shore after reading Ron's blog post and knowing that this place is an echinoderm haven!

The seagrasses on this shore is really lush and cover a huge expanse of the intertidal area. There are many kinds of sea stars found here such as this Pentaceraster sea star (Pentaceraster sp.).

Semakau walks with teachers and students

My seven consecutive days of fruitful low tide field trips (and unfortunately also sleep deprivation) ended with two days of guiding at Semakau!

On Monday, I guided an enthusiastic group of West cluster teachers and they were such a great bunch of audience despite the quote which says that teachers are the worst students. (All group photos can be downloaded in large sizes by clicking on them)

For a change, my Tuesday group consist of Biology students that I am currently teaching from my school. Joining us are two other Bio teachers. Here we are doing a traditional seagrass meadow group shot! Just like the seagrass of the Halophila genus, these people are saying a hearty "Halo!" to all of you!!

Virgin trip to Terumbu Selegi

Terumbu Selegi is the last submerged reef in Singapore waters that we have never visited. This is excluding the rest within the live firing area and restricted zones. It is apparently in the middle of nowhere. Unaware of the currents and other elements around this reef, we decided to leave the most challenging to the end.

We were early and arrived slightly before sunrise. The red beacon did helped us locate this mysterious submerged reef. We were greeted with nice cloud patterns at the background. You can also see Pulau Tekukor on the left and St John's Island on the right.

Tanah Merah- Still the best mainland coral garden!

Can you imagine that a reclaimed shore is probably the best place in mainland Singapore to find a garden full of corals?

This place is none other than just in front of Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal. Yes, it is the terminal where people will depart to or arrive from Bintan and other places. Having explored so many shores of mainland Singapore over the years, I have not found another place that has a better growth of corals.

Seahorse surprises at Punggol shore

Mei Lin and I checked out the tiny shore at Punggol end this morning. It is my first time on this shore on a super low tide and I wanted to see if the lower zone of the intertidal area is different from the mid zone that we have previously explored. Apparently, they are about the same!

Nevertheless, the morning low tides are great because lots of creatures are out in the dark. And we found FOUR seahorses! This is something that we can only expect on a good day at Changi beach.

East Coast shore is still alive!

Yes, the shore at East Coast Park is still alive!

Today at 3am, I decided to go ahead and cycle to East Coast hoping that the incoming thunderstorm clouds from the northwest would go away. I enjoyed a rain-free ride to ECP and just less than 5 minutes of looking at the shore among gusty winds, the huge rain poured.

I waited for more than an hour, alone and cold at the shelter. The weather map does not show signs of the rain easing out. I thought I will be entitling today's blog as "Miserable at East Coast" as I hardly saw anything on the shore yet.

As the rain did not showed signs of stopping, I took out my trusty umbrella and risked my DSLR on the shore for a short while when the rain was not so heavy.

Predawn to Changi Beach

The long series of super low tides are here again! This time I am going to embrace 7 consecutive days of morning trips. The first trip was our visit to Changi Beach this morning. We started and ended the trip before sunrise!

Our main objective of the day was to check out for anemones as Dr Daphne is around for the Sea anemone workshop.

Great day guiding at Chek Jawa Boardwalk

It's the June Holidays! And we have nearly 70 participants signing up for our Naked Hermit Crabs walk at Chek Jawa this morning!

For the first time, I guided a huge group of 18 participants. However, I did not fluster at all as they were very interested and attentive throughout the walk. In fact, it was an enjoyable time exploring the mangroves and shore with them! Here is a group photo of them at the peak of Jejawi tower.

Anemone hunt at Pulau Hantu

Today we were at Pulau Hantu with Dr Daphne Fautin to look for sea anemones!

Unlike yesterday at Cyrene Reef, the weather was very kind to us today and we began the nem hunt by looking for the Edwardsid-looking anemone that we have been seeing at Hantu's high shores.

Anemone hunt at Cyrene Reef

Today is Teamseagrass monitoring day! We had a wet morning which settled down to drizzles. This allowed us to land at Cyrene Reef to conduct our regular monitoring surveys on seagrass.

We were fortunate that Dr Daphne, world expert on sea anemones, could join us on this trip and we went on an anemone hunt after finishing our seagrass transects.

I was happy to be able to find this weird-looking sea anemone which we have never seen before!