Sea fan garden and evidence of dugong at Changi

There are lots of sea fans exposed on the rocky shores of Changi even on a supposedly not-so-low tide!

Usually most of the sea fans only will be exposed when the tide is very low and that often happens during the morning tides.

Therefore, I was able to capture landscape photos of the surrounding with the sea fans. Here's a photo showing how close our rich marine life is beside Changi creek where bumboats travel back and fro frequently on a weekend afternoon.

Here's another part of Changi shore with many pretty sea fans sticking out of the murky waters with Pulau Ubin at the background.

During the brief moments when the sea fans were sticking out of the water, I was able to look for the commensals that live among the gorgonians.

One of the commensals sighted would be this Spindle cowrie snail (Family Ovulidae) which actually are known to prey on the sea fans!

These clams that look like thumbs-up are Winged oysters (Family Pteriidae).

I managed to find an unknown clam or bivalve which wavy shells growing on the sea fan. It is my first time seeing it. Could it be something rare?

Another mystery for us, which we have observed many times before, would be this weird coil that wraps around the sea fan. Any one with clues on its identity?

When I was exploring the shore looking at the sea fans, there were people casting nets and some of the fish that people don't exactly harvest were thrown on the top of the boulder. I returned back to the waters hoping they will survive.

There was also a large colony of sea fan dragged out of the water, most likely by a fishing line or yet another net. Responsible fishing is still something that is not practiced by all. Sigh.

The rocks are very colourful with lots of sponges, ascidians and other encrusting organisms.

These three balls of sponges are something new that I have not paid attention to before and of course am not sure what they are exactly.

Dead cells! I mean cell phones which of course are not working, have been found on the shore. We gathered them to take a photo and wondered what exactly happened in the sea that led to these phones lying on the seashore.

At the seagrass area, there are many other types of marine life such as the Biscuit seastar (Goniodiscaster scaber) on the left and Cake sea star (Anthenea aspera) on the right.

Ria found a special sea star that is not commonly seen- the Luidia sand star (probably Luidia hardwicki).

There was a super huge Seagrass octopuses lazing itself on the shore which drew the attention of many. It is bigger than your face!

A special find by Jialing would be two of these Spotted-tail frogfish (Lophiocharon trisignatus)!

Frogfishes are interesting because they have a bait-like structure that lures smaller fishes or prey into the area their the mouth and before you know it, the frogfish will have its meal.

Chay Hoon found a bright Estuarine seahorses (Hippocampus kuda) which was very actively swimming in the tide pool before its tail curled up against something to anchor with.

Ending off this post, shall share something exciting! There are dugong feeding trails sighted here!

More obvious markings of their feeding trails...

And here as well on another part of the shore. It's exciting to know that these majestic marine mammals can come so close to the mainland shore to feed. Glad that they are still doing ok in our waters. :)