CNY Day 2: Terumbu Selegi

After 6 years, we are finally back on Terumbu Selegi on CNY Day 2!

Terumbu Selegi is a submerged reef in the middle of nowhere. The nearest islands would be Sentosa, St John's Island and Sisters' Islands.

How is the reef after 6 years? It doesn't seem to be as good as our previous visit during 2011. But we did saw quite a number of interesting slugs instead!

Chay Hoon once again found tiny slugs! This time she found this red and white Flabellina bicolor. At first we thought she found only one. It was only during processing that I realised there were TWO! Wow.

Jianlin seemed to have received the bionic genes from Chay Hoon as he went on to find more ridiculously small sea slugs that requires special lens to shoot. This is a sap-sucking slug that he found among the Hairy green seaweed (Bryopsis sp.).

And he later found yet another tiny Gymnodoris nudibranch (Gymnodoris sp.)! So tiny that I couldn't get a sharp image after much struggle.

As for me, my standard is only to find slugs as large as this Ornate leaf slug (Elysia ornata).

The reefs are not doing as well as before. Much of the hard and soft corals that we found previously have been decimated. What's left is fraction of the original state. I'm not too surprised given the recent years of pressures such as oil spills and coral bleaching.

The Giant carpet anemones (Stichodactyla gigantea) are still there though no sightings of any commensal fish or shrimps.

The unbeatable Long black sea cucumbers (Holothuria leucospilota) are still around! 

An interesting find by Russel would be this large Very hairy hermit crab (Dardanus lagopodes). We are not too sure why it was clinging onto the coral rubble.

This anemone-ish looking critter is likely a Corallimorph (Order Corallimorpharia).

Jianlin surprised us again by finding the Blue-spotted flatworm (Pseudoceros indicus). Furthermore, James Choi who joined me on this trip found the special Red lined flatworm (Maritigrella virgulata)!

When we were about to leave, Jianlin stumbled upon this red and white Starry mouthed nudibranch (Bornella stellifer). The colour theme fits in CNY very well!

Despite the difficult departure due to high waves, we were able to wait and leave the reef safely before the sun sets. Here's a sunset shot with Pulau Jong at the background.

More photos of the trip can be found in my facebook album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10154977116448158.1073741932.547198157&type=1&l=cda22f1c8c