We saw a living lobster among the seawall of Seringat-Kias on our predawn trip this morning!
Like the normal size of an adult lobster, it was relative quite big and I was surprised when I stumbled upon this charismatic creature which we rarely see on our intertidal trips. Despite being a reclaimed shore, Seringat-Kias holds lots of suprises!
The lobster was not moving very much, either it was sleeping or it was waiting for the tide to return so that it can swim out. I took an underwater shot of the lobster in the dark with torchlight shining on it.
Outside the seawalls are many of these large scary Long-spined black sea urchin (Diadema sp.)!
Here's more to show you the numerous number of these large sea urchins lurking by the edge of the seawall. The shore off Seringat-Kias is quite popular with recreational boats... swimmers have to be careful when coming close to the seawall!!
It was great finding this large green sea anemone which I suspect is a Magnificent anemone (Heteractis magnifica). From far, it looks like the Hairy seaweed. There was even a False clown anemonefish (Amphiprion ocellaris) swimming among the tentacles!
I managed to capture quite a few nice shots of this Copperband butterflyfish (Chelmon rostratus). They are ever so beautiful!
The seagrassy and sandy shore of Seringat-Kias has lots of cyanobacteria and therefore lots of predators of cyanobacteria- the Furry sea hares (Stylocheilus sp.). If you take a closer look, this seahare has purple or blue spots with fine lines running along the length of the body. Quite cool looking I must say!
The funniest moment I had with these sea hares will be to see how they "queue" up to feed on the cyanobacteria.
Even with the slightest disturbance, they will release purple ink into the water to scare away the predators. It does look like a piece of nature art from the human's perspective.
Rene had quite good eyes for crabs today. First, she found this unknown swimming crab which Ria first saw at Sisters Island recently.
She also found this tiny weeny Box crab (Family Calappidae)!
Just before sunrise, Chay Hoon and I quicked walked quite a bit to look at the natural rocky shores of Lazarus Island. The bright moon was just about to set from the direction of St John's Island.
I came here to look for two animals and after much searching they were located!
The first animal is the Pink-spotted Bead anemone (Anthopleura buddemeieri) which Dr Daphne, world sea anemone expert, shared with us last year. This anemone is found very high up on the rocky shores and I was glad to find and see it for the first time. Don't you think it looks like a strawberry? :)
This Cryptic sea star (Cryptasterina sp.) has been found during the previous trip and it took me close to an hour to find it this time. At least it's good to know that the sea star is still surviving on this shore. Other than Semakau and Lazarus, we have not really seen it elsewhere.
Just before we left, we had our ritual rounds of looking at the pontoon of Seringat-Kias.
What's there to look at? Lots of wonderful stuffs! See how joyful Jocelyne is! :)
With my trusty underwater camera, here is a view of how the side of the pontoon looks like! It is encrusted with lots of colourful marine life!
At the deeper ends, you can even find sea fans!
Here is another view of the sea fans from beneath the pontoon.
On top of sea fans, there are also lots of sponges, fan worms, soft and hard corals, zoanthids etc.
The water was very clear and this photos of the soft coral looks as it is part of an aquarium.
Chay Hoon pointed out to me something that looks like a giant clam since this bivalve has wavy lips. It was until I processed the photo that I notice something feathery on the side of the bivalve. Is it a juvenile featherstar?
It could be possible since we saw two adult Feather stars (Order Comatulida) by the pontoon before we began the exploration.
Tomorrow we will visit the island across Seringat-Kias-Lazarus and that is St John's Island!
More photos of the trip here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/koksheng/archives/date-taken/2012/04/07/
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