Team Seagrass session at Semakau

While you might be still sleeping, a gang of 24 team seagrassers set off from Marina South pier as we head on to Pulau Semakau for our monitoring session. It has been close to half since I went there and I'm very excited to finally be able to go back.


Pulau Semakau is yes, our landfill, where the incenerated rubbish ends up eventually. Yet, few people know that there is a recreational section of the island which includes this super big intertidal area, exposed at low tides. We can even get a very good view of Raffles Lighthouse which is way off south of Singapore Straits.


And the other direction we face Bukom where there are oil refinery. We started monitoring very efficiently today. Kudos to the wonderful and hardworking team. We spent about 1 hour in monitoring the seagrasses and also distinguishing the 5 different species along the transect. Sorry no photos as even my butts and thighs got wet in the seagrass lagoon as I had to bend down to do all the monitoring work with my great partner Yikang.

Soon, we finished our work. Ron accompanied me to the different parts of Semakau. I'm so sorry because he should have spent the time exploring elsewhere. I didn't know that you have yet to explore the far south portion.


It's actually my first time seeing this large Neptune's cup sponge near the reef edge.


Of the reef edge where there's dryer land, there is this nice noble volute laying eggs, passing generations.


This phyllid nudibranch is rather big compared to the rest. Ron later added that there are quite a number of them in Semakau.


Today Semakau was really lively as we had also the Raffles Museum walks with 50 people. I followed their markers and found this fabulous fluted giant clam (Tridacna squamosa). It's my first time seeing it, so I was full of wow.


Common seastars may not be common elsewhere but we can still find them at Semakau. When will these guys come back to Chek Jawa??


The RMBR people couldn't find these fascinating stars for their guided walks so Ron and I went combing close to the reef edge to find them. And soon aha! I saw the first one, followed by Ron in few seconds. After knowing we found them, the visitors were very excited too.


These guys also disappeared from Chek Jawa and Pulau Sekudu after the mass death in January.


Not too long, as I continued searching, I found this third one. Yay!


After the visitors left, we team seagrassers finally can get some moments with these "superstars".


Dr Daphne left an impact in us as we now pay more attention to anemones. This one I suspect is Stichodactyla mertensii and not Stichodactyla gigantea. Too bad I didn't manage to check the oral disk out of laziness as this is found very deep and very close to reef slope. I was struggling with the high water level.


This one found beside a disused concrete is the bulb-tentacle anemone (Entacmea quadricolor) where tomato clownfish like to reside. Too bad Ron says he has never seen any in this anemone for many times.


Ron shared with me about this anemone, Heteractis crispa. Or is it actually Macrodactyla doreensis?


This looks like the Stichodactyla gigantea anemone to me and its pretty big and nicely folded. Too bad no anemonefish were found residing in all these anemones.


Was pretty surprise we can find so many types of anemones in Semakau, including these carpet aneomones (Stichodactyla haddoni).

We also saw a couple of the "Condylactis Not" and the Frilly sea anemones.


This is what is NOT an anemone but a sunflower mushroom coral. It is a solitary being with a hard undersurface, unlike anemones.


Semakau also has a lot of soft corals and over here we see a huge patch of "dead men's finger" soft coral.


The day ended with the sweet couple walking back :-)

Anemone finale at Sungei Buloh

Today is the last day of our sea anemone "expeditions" and guess what, we are at the mangroves over at Sungei Buloh Nature Reserve.


Siva leads us to his territory via the accessible boardwalk system. And at first sight, I saw a few giant mudskipper wading across the wetland and pools of water.

Not too soon, we navigated ourselves down to the mud and dirt where the real work starts!


It is a very nice place after all, in this photo with a stream leading out to Johor Straits.


Ria did not get down at first and was happily taking photos of us dredging across the mud. Of course, Siva also took a photo of her up there before she joins us.


Huaqin found this delicate anemone with its tentacles opened along the side of a stream. Mangrove anemones are pretty either.


We were looking more for those anemones that burrow deeper into the substrate and this is how it looks like out of the mud. It has a orangey or brown column with white stripes running parallel to the it. The tentacles, when out of water, are retracted into its body.


The team works hard to get these anemones where no one bothers about them in the past. We are so glad that Dr Daphne is here to help us know more about these anemone guys, as we can better appreciate and document the rich biodiversity Singapore has.


Trixie is one of the very garang anemone team member and together with Ivy, they assist Dr Daphne with collection and identification. Who says girls can't do such stuffs?


Throughout the search, we found many of these blobs, mostly stuck on hard surfaces.

Dr Daphne told us that these are actually Anthopleura handi. And these anemones are actually named after her professor, called Professor Hand. They are tough guys and live well in the anoxic mangrove conditions.

Swee Hee found another type of anemone which I have forgotten the id. It has white lines radiating from the centre.

And to Ria's curosity, she found out surprisingly that the whole place is full of these rare Halophila Beccari! So far I only knew they can be found in Chek Jawa. And to think that we were all stomping them all over. Haha.

We brought a bit of specimen back to Siti, the expert of seagrass, who will take a good good look at these rosey tiger seagrass.

Today we had a well assorted gang of team members...


working hard and also learning valuable information from Dr Daphne.

Very soon, earlier than expected, we managed to complete our work and reached the objectives. We were pleasant that the park has prepared pools of water with sponges so that we can have a proper washup after getting ourselves down and dirty in the mud. It was a fruitful and enriching experience getting to learn so much from Dr Daphne.

After almost everyone left, Andy, Ron, Alvin, Robert and I stayed behind. We spotted this white-breasted waterhen (Amaurornis phoenicurus) near the edge of the pond.

I thought this was a pretty shot of a red-ear slider "looking" at the edge of the pond of small fishes.

We also stopped by the main bridge and with the assistance of Ron and Alvin, I get to see this beautiful Stork-billed Kingfisher resting on the branch, and it stayed there for really some time, even after we left.

We were talking about otters and tried to sight for one. I saw something moving from afar and I can't recognise what is it. Thus, I took out my camera and make a zoom. To my dismay, from what I saw from my camera, it is only a monitor lizard. Well, better than nothing. We know these otters are still there before Robert saw it some time ago.


That marks the end of the day, thanks to the anemone team for the trip and also Andy for the interesting drives which few people now appreciate the rustic charm of these winding roads.

Anemones & co at Kusu

The anemone team were out at Kusu Island this early pre-dawn. Kusu is only about 15 minutes away from city area, yet is an amazing place to find much marine life.


Walking down the sandy shore, I spotted this sea anemone with white bars and dark parallel lines along the tentacles. A dug up by the team reveals the dark brown lines parallel to the column of lighter brown colour.


At both lagoons of Kusu, we can find Haddon's carpet anemones (Stichodactyla haddoni).


In a while, Dr Daphne pointed out her find of Stichodactyla gigantea. I was eager to take a closer look and as compared to Stichodactyla haddoni, it has longer and pointed tentacles that vibrate constantly. In fact I felt it look much more alike to Stichodactyla mertensii.

All I know is Stichodactyla gigantea is found more on sandy substrates and Stichodactyla mertensii tend to reside at hard substrates like the coral rubble and tend to be further out and deeper in the reef. Would like to know more about how to distinguish them, hope I can get help somewhere somehow.

Update: Aha! Thank you Ria for making me heard. She has given a detailed account from Dr Daphne at wildfilms blog.


Kusu has many different anemones and also definitely nemos or clown anemonefishes. We can see the bigger one is the female while the smaller one is the male.


Here's another shot of the nemo in another anemone from far...


and from near!


Anemones also host other organisms like this pretty anemone shrimp.


Heteractis magnifica sea anemone are very pretty and tend to come in purplish colour from what I've encountered at the other shores.


And believe me, there are many Heteractis magnifica sea anemones at Kusu! Here we have a whole bunch of them sticking onto the rocks or rubble.


At Kusu, we also encountered many of these Phymanthus sp anemones with tentacles of white ends. They are pretty common among higher rocks.


And more anemones! This is the Macrodactyla doreensis with very long tentacles evenly tapered to point, according to Dr Daphne's ebook of field guide to anemonefishes and their host anemones.


Dr Daphne also pointed to us something out from a huge carpet of zoathids. She showed us that some anemones do live among them. I took a similar photo away from her and I hope the brown ones are what she mentioned. Opps.


And this is what is NOT an anemone. Though named peacock anemones (Order Cerintharia). these Cerianthids are not exactly a true anemone.


The Kusu hunt involves and revolves hugely trying to find these Condylactis (not). Not as in these were once thought to be Condylactis sp. but Dr Daphne says its not. However, she needs a sample of it to go back to the lab and identify it.

To our dismay, though we encountered at least four, all attempts to nab this fellow failed. We were digging mud and sand all over and this guy is really quick and agile.


And here is the hardworking team at the edge of the reef.

Here are the other lifeforms found at Kusu!


There are many different types of beautiful corals.


And today I met Eunice! Yes, these "ugly" giant reef worms are called Eunice sp. They can grow up to 1.5m long.


Ria showed her special find of these two nudibranch which I don't know how to id. According to Chay Hoon, it looks like Platydoris scabra.


I found this nice large spotted black flatworm (Acanthozon sp.) where near the carpet of zoathids are. This one is really pretty in my opinion.


And Yuchen told me there's a beautiful yellow reef fish very near the edge and I managed to take a snapshot of it.


Kusu island is famous for being a turtle island with a legend behind it and also for the temple found in it.