Splendid reefs of Hantu

On 11 Oct 2014, we visited Pulau Hantu to look at the beautiful reefs, of which at certain stretches are very thick and full of life! We saw several giant clams, slugs of different types, flatworms, uncommon fish etc. It's amazing to witness the diversity of marine life just right opposite the petrochemical plants of Bukom. 

How is Labrador shore doing?

On 10 Oct 2014, I visited Labrador shore to see how it was doing. Labrador is our last natural rocky shore in Southern Singapore and it used to be much better before the surrounding reclamation began. Glad to see that the seagrasses are still thriving and that marine life is slowly coming back. Let's hope with time it will recover.

Rich coral reef of Northern Semakau

On 9 Oct 2014, we did an intertidal survey of Northern Semakau where there are lots of corals at the reef edge. I had a great time exploring the colourful reefs using my underwater camera. I also spent some time looking at the higher shores and noticed that the seagrasses are cropped. The Cryptic sea stars at the rocks are still there.

Full of crabs at Punggol shore

There's lots of crap crabs at Punggol where James and I visited this shore on a wee hour of 0430. This also marked the end of the morning low spring tide field trips for 2014!

One of the most interesting crabs we encountered would be this tiny unidentified porcelain crab with a face band in between its eyes. This crab that was found on an ascidian is indeed very cute!

Boat graveyard at Terumbu Pempang Tengah

It's our last season of morning lows for the year before we usher in the evening low spring tides from October onwards.  For our last submerged morning trip with a super early 0300 departure, we surveyed Terumbu Pempang Tengah.

One of the interesting features of this reef is the sunken boat found off the reef in the direction facing Pulau Hantu and Bukom. In fact, this location is marked on the navigation chart as a place where dead boats are dumped and thus also can be called as the boat graveyard.

Coral health check at Terumbu Raya

I'm back at Terumbu Raya, a submerged reef off northern part of Pulau Semakau after 3 years! My previous trip was in Jul 2011. Terumbu Raya, also named as The Great Reef in Malay is home to thick growths of hard corals and its associates by the reef edge.

How is the coral bleaching situation at Terumbu Raya? We are glad to see that most of the hard corals are fine except for some partial bleached ones like the coral on the top left hand corner of this photo.

Simple Serenity at Southern Semakau

Following my last blog post on Southern Semakau entitled "Sunny Sunday out at Southern Semakau", I will continue to use the 4 "S"s for the title for this blog post- Simple Serenity at Southern Semakau. :)

The dawn over Southern Semakau yesterday morning was a warm sight that greeted us as we ended the trip at first light.