Chek Jawa is now open! ...any-tide

Was at Chek Jawa the fourth consecutive day today, and it is a big day for this special place. It is the offical launch of the boardwalk in Chek Jawa which features the mangrove, intertidal shore, coastal forest etc. You may now visit CJ anytime between 9-5, and any-tide! Yes, it's finally opened to the public, without the constraint of booking limited places for guided shore tours. But if you really wish to go down, you can try booking guided tours starting July.

The day started with a thunderstorm, but I saw that it did not dampen any of our spirit. I also got to know Dewi and Lei today :-)


After a heartful speech on the Chek Jawa journey by Minister Mah, the volunteers and important people of CJ were awarded for their passion and work with this place.


Thankfully, the weather fine much better after the speech and awards. Managed to tag along with Ron as he guided. Went up the observation tower for first time and wow, what a pleasant sight! Something different from usual working trips indeed.


The nipah fruits give you the attap chee you eat in desserts. But do not just open it, it needs processing before you get the gluey sugary attap chee.


First time seeing the inflorescence of the Nipah plant. Bees are busy pollinating the plant.


And a special find in the mangrove! A banded krait.


At the shores, we stopped and marvelled at these fiddler crabs, waving their huge orange claw.


Chek Jawa is so lively today! Wow.


And here is Ron, the professional guider to shores with our group on the boardwalk.


Suddenly, Dewi's hairs started to stand up! It's static and I wondered is the lightning going to strike her? This thing made everyone of us laugh... lol.


At house no. 1 or now the visitor centre, here is a rescue tank to house any injured animals. Seagrasses are also found inside. Do wonder will they do well in a tank?


The fireplace is such a classic of House No. 1!


And it's also the first time I see barcode scanner used to give information of each species found in Chek Jawa. Cool.


So do make a visit at this HSBC gallery at House no. 1 the next time you visit Ubin yah.


The jetty outside house no. 1 has been repaired and it continues to give a nice scenery of the spectcular house no. 1, the nicest building in Ubin. It faces Sekudu too giving grand view of the wonderful rock formations there.


Mass media FM958 caught hold of Ron for an interview in Mandarin, that must be bit hard.


Siva here with the mass media... Other veterans including Ria etc were also interviewed extensively :-)


And we ended the day with champagnes and 100 plus (for those who don't drink) to celebrate this special day and to mark the start of the next phase of Chek Jawa journey. Here's Evelyn, being always enthusiastic and game to cheer up our spirits.

Come visit Chek Jawa now!

The boardwalk is able to allow you to explore that place anytime, without getting down and dirty like what we did for the 2 days of transect (more stories on transect will be posted soon on my CJ project blog).

My many firsts at Ghost Island

Again the wildfilms and beachfleas gang met early in the wee mornings, we were going through the customs check of West Coast Pier. The officer that scanned our IC kept asking me why we are going to a GHOST island, as if we are ghosts going at a ghostly hour. Haha. Pulau Hantu is termed as ghost island by some myth of ancient Malay warriors whom once dueled to the death and their ghosts are said to wander the isle. Anyway, this island was either further south from Singapore than I imagined or the boat was slower. Pulau Hantu is actually made up of two islets: Pulau Hantu Besar (Big Ghost Island) and Pulau Hantu Kechil (Little Ghost Island).


As the boat passed by the industrial installations, the night lights on them look quite spectacular in one way. The presence of these installations are not nature friendly though.


Soon after we reach hantu, Ron, Helen and I found this false clownfish aka nemo on this sea anemone. This one is the female which is much bigger. The smaller male was sighted at the same anemone but we couldn't find it after that.


And I wonder why the anemones in Hantu come in different species, colour, sizes etc. Wow.


Other than the nemos, one can also find beautiful anemone shrimps on the sea anemone.


This is another anemone called the magnificent sea anemone (Heteractis magnifica). It also houses another nemo but it was too shy! Instead, we saw a copper banded butterflyfish beside this anemone (shown below).


Here are the fishy business. The first one on top left I dont know what it is! Haha. The top right is the copperbanded butterflyfish I mentioned above

Update from Marcus: the butterfly fish should be the kite butterflyfish (Parachaetodon occelatus) which lacks the copper-banded's long beak. Thanks!

Bottom left is a razor fish...my first time seeing it. Another first time is this batfish at bottom right which Ria and Alvin saw while we were leaving the island at the jetty. Too bad the boat was going off and this is the only shot I have, sidewards...sorry for it. For those who haven't seen before, you might refer to this semakau teamseagrass post here .


Another first I guess must be this Acropora coral where you can even find clams living in between.


Yet another first is this crinoid or featherstar found by Marcus!


I have also never seen zoathids this big. Can you see my chopsticks are a scale?


A nice sight of moon above the waters.


If I did not recall wrongly, it's also my first time seeing this flowery soft coral. Very nice indeed.


There are many mushroom corals and later on there's another photo on them. Here is one that is really beautiful with shades of green and pink etc and also its tentacles coming out.


This anemone coral has long polyps thats sway along with the currents of the shore.


And what made many of us gather at the unsteady reef edge?


Yes, the bulb-tentacle anemone was found and Ron said tomato clownfish might be inside. Indeed yes! And following is a long long wait for a good good shot. Everyone were clustered together and waited patiently. Haha. This is probably my best shot. And both the anemone and the tomato clownfish is also my first time of sighting!


Talking again about first time, I have yet to see such a big sea urchin than this one here!


Can you see there are many mushroom corals? Helen was commenting this is a mushroom city... while someone else (I forgot) said Mushroom Siti. Hahahaha! Siti has turned into a mushroom.


More firsts, yes again, is this Pesudoceros flatworm, stonefish sea cucumber and weird gastropod Siti was holding. The Glossodoris atromarginata nudibranch is not a first time for me but it's always enlightening to see them together.


Though the industries are only a stone throw away, the northern reef still thrives. That's pretty heartening, though it used to be even better in the past.


While heading back to jetty, Siti found the patch of sand where MANY common seastars can be found. Yes, many! Wow.


And judging from this photo, I no need to elaborate which jetty we alighted and departed...haha. At low tide it is possible to wade across the shallow lagoon between the two islands between the big one and the small one.


Bukom is not all about chemical installations... here's the recreation part where the swimming pool can be found. A shot taken on the way back West Coast pier. The day ended bit sad when we realized that Cyrene will be gone soon by 2015 for reclamation.

Though many say that Hantu is quieter today, but I have really seen a lot today. More corals and life that I can't possibly post all here because I am too tired now. Hahaaa.. Which means perhaps years ago, this place might be even richer in diversity. Thanks Ria for arranging the trip. Thanks Evelyn for your kindness for fetching me back home knowing I have to rush to church. :)

A "basket" of surprise

Today we were at Sister's Island early in the morning, before the sun rises. Ron, Helen, July and I went over to the small lagoon to recce for common seastars while the others went straight to the bigger one first. The small lagoon has a lot of sandflies... Good thing July brought along insect repellent. Thanks!


From top left to bottom right: The land hermit crab is actually one of the threatened species in Singapore. Good that we can still see them at Sisters. The second photo I dont know what fish, but the 3rd one is the halfbeak where its upper jaw is much shorter than its lower jaw. The last photo is the snapping shrimp spotted by Helen.


Though carpet anemones are few, but I'm heartened to see this pair of anemone shrimp on one of the carpet anemones found.


This fish is really fun to play. When it sees you, it will bury itself into sand only with eyes sticking out as seen above at left side. When you disturb it a bit, it will come out like on the right side.


July pointed out this family of black sea cucumber... first time seeing many in one spot.


I think how these zoathids clump together can be pretty interesting.


It's the crabby part again! Here we found the red egg crab, grapsus crab, decorator crab and the swimming crab. First time seeing the decorator crab, it likes to decorate itself with sponges, seaweed etc to conceal from predators.


Ron found a blue spotted stingray.


Helen found this stealth toadfish in the lagoon...hehe.


How can a trip to Sisters be without flatworms. Though Sisters today is not as exciting as before which is cause of worry, glad to still be able to see this.


I was looking at the unknown sea cucumber as like the left photo. If you spot further, you might see what I saw. A pair of eyes belonging to a green fish. That was the best shot I could get.


The sun rises. Though not spectacular due to cloudy weather, it's still breath taking. The city lights are at the background.


Octopuses are quite common too and they are pretty interesting because they can change colours to blend into the surrounding.


WOW find of the day! Chay Hoon was so excited when she found it that she shouted "Basket seastar". I was wondering what on earth is that?? Simply because I dont know what it is. It is a seastar, can you see the five arms emerging from a central disk?


What is amazing is that from what I heard, basket seastars were last found in Singapore at 1896. Here is the one found then, dredged off St John Island. Now it is standing at Raffles Museum.


The other wow find especially for me must be this false clownfish or commonly known as nemo. It's my FIRST time seeing it and I've been longing to see it in the wild. To my orientation group who is named Finding nemo, I would like to say, found!


How can we forget the different variety of corals that reside at Sisters?


July had a great time with this bohol nudibranch (Discodoris boholensis). Because its called DISCOdoris, we were trying to view this nudibranch through the discos of water waves etc and other lame manners I have forgotten thankfully. Haaha.


Chay Hoon spotted another great find which is this smasher mantis shrimp. It has clubs to whack and stun predators. I will most likely miss finding it because it looks green like seaweed from top.


After a hearty breakfast, we waited at the jetty for the bumboat to fetch us back. And we were wondering what are these orange thingy? Nudibranch? Zoathids? Really curious.


This is the smaller sisters Island that I've not visited before, hopefully sometime soon. Byebye!