Changi Beach with MGS girls

It has been quite a while I have visited this portion of Changi beach and this afternoon I was out with many girls from Methodist Girls School for a shore trip which aims to show and teach them about the ecology, biodiversity and conservation of sea shores.

I don't remember participating in such trips in the past, so these girls are really fortunate to experience wild marine life right here in Singapore.


Just at the high shores, the girls were amazed at the patterns of sand balls created.


The culprit of the sand ball formation is this sand bubbler crab (Scopimera sp.). The sand bubbler crab eats the thin coating of edible particles on sand grains by scrapping the food to its mouth. After which, the "processed" sand is then discarded as a little ball from the burrow entrance.

The crabs emerge as soon as the tide recedes. Therefore, you can estimate how long the tide has been out by the patterns of their sand balls. The more extensive the pattern of sand balls, the longer the tide has been out.


We walked towards the lower shore zonation and discussed about seagrasses versus seaweed and the uses of the flora in the sea. This is a seagrass (Halodule uninveris) because it has a root system unlike the seaweed.


Unfortunately, the Fern seagrass (Halophila spinulosa) seems to be affected by the recent scorching weather as they turn black in colour. Let's hope they can recover.


Another creature that excited the girls will be this Spotted moon crab (Ashtoret lunaris). Why were they excited? Because this crab can burrow into the sand in quick time.


Another sharp eyed spotting of the students will be this snail that has an anemone stuck on its shell. This is probably mutualism at work as the anemone can find a hard substrate to land on while the anemone helps to fend off predators of the snail with its stinging properties.


One of the girls spotted this tiny weeny green beachflea (Order Amphipoda) which I won't see because I am not really super detailed in finding creatures that don't have five arms. This beachflea is a crustacean that resemble shrimps. Most beachfleas are scavengers or feed on detritus. Some can filter feed. A few are predatory while some are parasites on larger animals.


The gong gong (Strombus canarium) is well known for being a seafood. It can be found in Changi but the population is dwindling because many people take them off the shores before they could replace themselves, which is probably unsustainable. Maybe one day gong gong may become even rarer to find? Food for thought indeed.


This is another gastropod, and a very big one that made the girls wow-ed. Yes, this is a very large noble volute (Cymbiola nobilis) that is unfortunately listed as 'Vulnerable' on the Red List of threatened animals of Singapore due to habitat loss, overcollection for food and its attractive shell.


It's my very first time seeing such a large razor shell or bamboo clam (Family Solenidae) which is about 8-10cm long! It's the kind of size you find in the seafood table since it is edible. It was really cool to see how the clam swim through ejecting a jet of water with its siphon.


The razor shell can even burrow and it showed us how it did it on the spot. After which, what remains will be this siphon that sticks out to the surface to breathe and filter feed.


I believe many students would have seen starfishes in photos or cartoons but this is the first time for many to see them alive! This is the plain sand star (Astropecten sp.)


More echinoderms were found including the salmacis sea urchin (Salmacis sp.) and many sea cucumbers like this Thorny sea cucumber (Colochirus quadrangularis).


One of the few special finds today will be this unidentified mysterious sea cucumber with "spikes" and circles on its body. It is relatively big, comparable some of the garlic sea cucumber.


The underside of the intriguing sea cucumber that we don't know what it is. It seems to have more spikey protrusions by the side. Another weird sea cucumber was also found by the students that is also as big and look like the Remarkable sea cucumber (Holothuria notabilis) but it is probably not because it also has quite obvious and longer spikey protrusions.

I'm always amazed at the diversity of sea cucumbers in Singapore. So much is unknown!


Under a rock was this weird looking creature that I don't know what it is! It is very small and has four pink stripes. Could this be a tunicate or sea squirt, or even a juvenile sea cucumber?


Another sighting will be this Dragonet (Family Callionymidae) fish that are well camouflaged and thus usually overlooked with the sand.


Another special find of the day! Henrietta found this pretty snail that I've not seen it before personally. This is likely to be a helmet shell from Family Cassidae (Thanks Ron for the id!).

This snail has two curved tentacles that come out from the centre, together with a siphon and a white mantle.


The underside reveals tooth like edges (not shown here) and a operculum looking structure at the end of its mantle to shut themselves off from predation or dessication.


Last but definitely not the least, one of the girls in my group showed me her find of this delicate looking Brown flatworm (Pseudobiceros gratus) and it is also my first time seeing this flatworm!

Today's trip with the girls was a fun one with many nice sightings and sharing about the different aspects of our own shore in Singapore. I hope they were motivated to express and act after exploring the living shore of Changi.

First 2009 Semakau guided walk

Yesterday was the very first 2009 Semakau guided walk by the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research. And with the clear skies good weather, we toured around the Semakau landfill with a video presentation before hitting on to the shores for the best part of the trip: the intertidal walk!


I had the privilege to be assisted with Weijie, who is an OJT. Interestingly, it was also his very first time to Semakau! Thus, he was probably as excited as the visitors :-)

He did a great job sharing mainly about mangroves, sea stars and sponges (in this photo) with the family in our group.

Today was indeed a great start to our 2009 guided walks because we saw a wide variety of creatures despite the hot sun.


We saw several kinds of sea cucumbers like the garlic bread/sandfish sea cucumber and the synaptic sea cucumber that the kids thought it was a worm or snake. I particular like this ocellated sea cucumber (Stichopus ocellatus) which were only sighted only in Semakau so far.


The hunter seekers and other shore lovers found several clammy finds like this living scallop.


A heart cockle (Corculum cardissa) was found! It has been some time since I've seen this pretty cockle that looks nothing near to the blood cockle we see in our dishes.


On the other side was a even nicer pink-purplish coloration on the bivalve. Unfortunately, due to habitat degradation and overcollection, these pretty heart cockles are rather rare. Good thing is that we can still find them at Semakau.


Another of my favourite animal (also Mei lin's top fav) will be this fluted giant clam (Tridacna squamosa) .


If you look closely you can spot its siphon and the eyespots on the mantle as marked by black dots. Mei Lin is currently researching on this squirting behaviour because they apparently can see predators and squirt water at them!


The clammy finds of the day ends with this small clam embedded within a coral!


Yes, the clam was found in the lettuce coral (Pavona sp.). It's my first time seeing this, previously I only saw clams embedded between the Acropora corals.


We had a bit of time to explore with the participants and I also encountered this pretty coral in green.


A closer look suggests that this is the Carnation coral (Pectinia sp.). Correct me if I'm wrong.


While the hunter seekers found a spider conch (Lambis lambis), soon I found another one myself.


We had quite a crabby time around with sightings of flower crab, red egg crab, hairy crabs etc. But this is the most exciting crab find, the mosaic crab (Lophozozymus pictor) as also known as the most poisonous crab of Singapore! There are several documented deaths caused by eating this crab despite the red colour may mean yummy to human beings. In fact, red usually means danger! Cooking it for many hours does not destroy the toxins.


Nudibranchs are definitely a delight to look at during a guided walk and I spotted this bright orange gymnodoris nudibranch (Gymnodoris sp.). They are known to eat other nudibranchs! Wow.


I was also thrilled to see this really stunning Ceratosoma nudibranch (Ceratosoma sp.) that is not commonly seen, except sometimes at Semakau. We also saw other nudis like the polka dotted one and the phyllid nudibranch.


A tigertail seahorse (Hippocampus comes) was also found by the intrepid hunter seekers! They are known to ambush to catch their prey instead of chasing after them.

Now for the echinoderm surprises of the day...


My first time seeing this heart urchin (probably Maretia planulata) is definitely something worth remembering!


The mouth of the heart urchin is on the underside. Unfortunately, this heart urchin looks not active.


Semakau is well known for these gigantic knobbly sea stars (Protoreaster nodosus) that never fails to attract attention from all ages.

Now is the find of the day for me....


Finally I got to witness this special star that was first sighted during the launch of Project Semakau. I was hunting up and down and asking around on the whereabouts of this star. When I got to the area of where it was last sighted, I walked and searched in circles but to no avail. It was when Ron who came towards me and in no time, he saw the star among the area that I was circling. Haha, I must be quite blind at that time.


This special sea star is a mystery because it has knobs like knobbly sea stars (Protoreaster nodosus) but yet the patterns on the aboral surface is similar to cushion stars (Culcita novaeguineae).

I would guess it is a sea star from the Family Oreasteridae.


The underside of the mystery sea star.


If you look real detailedly (apologies that it is not obvious from this photo) on the underside, you can find pincer-like structures called bivalved pedicellariae which is also present on their UPPER side. This might be useful for identification.


Of course, we always remember to take a group photo with the magnificient knobbly sea star. I had a really great time guiding this group with Weijie. Everyone was really paying attention and following intently. It's really great to have such kinds of participants. Even the kids were so well behaved. :-)


Well, time passed fast while we were having fun. The sunset fell and another new adventure awaits.

Tanah Merah Surprises!

It's a Saturday afternoon and many Singaporeans are out in the sun having some relaxation in the beach.


Or participate in some sea sports as I've encountered off the shores of Tanah Merah.


Yes today's trip is to Tanah Merah with Yikang and Geraldine. Something about Tanah Merah that we will never forget is the presence of many wonderful Cake sand dollars (Arachnoides placenta) that literally dotted the whole shore.


Though I didn't manage to find the rarer Keyhole sand dollar (Echinodiscus truncatus) that we saw at Tanah Merah before, I am still glad to find many Cake sand dollars on this shore.


Another group of animals that dominates Tanah Merah must be these button snails (Umbonium vestiarum) that are also a delight to encounter.


Interestingly, there were moments where we seen some Striped hermit crab (Clibanarius sp.) seemingly to feed or interact with the button snails.


And somehow, I manage to spot this tiny brownish crab camouflaging on the shell of the hermit crab.


If you think digging in the sand is safe, sometimes you might just brush yourself with the bristleworm or as known as fireworm which definitely will leave you an unforgettable experience (think of fire).


There are many dead shells of snails and clams that one can find, which gives a reflectance of what life is there in the subtidal or at the supralittoral zone.


I also found this weird looking spine thingy. Wonder what does this belong to?


The Ball moon snail (Polinices didyma) feeds on the button snails by prowling on and beneath the sand. The shell of this snail is interesting because it looks like an eye. Haha.

Of course, there are more that meets the eye during today's trip at Tanah Merah. There were several surprises!!


One of the surprises will be this white blobbish and slug-like creature that looks like it has an eye within its body exterior body.


And it was Geraldine found this weird looking creature that I've never seen before.


This was how it was like when she first found it. I thought it was a nudibranch or slug at first but there were no gills to begin with. It was rather thick and it looks like there are something inside (with the "eye"). Could this be an egg case of some fish or squid that has about to hatch?

What is intruiging was that this creature can move and burrow into the sand slowly.

Here's the next surprise!


I was very pleasantly surprised and amazed to find this rare Bordered sea star (Craspidaster hesperus) that was only seen once before at Beting Bronok. It was rather small, like the size of a sand star (Astropecten sp.) which I thought it was initially.


The upper surface of the body is covered with special flat-topped, pillar-like structures called paxillae. They look like little starlets on the surface.

I didn't expect to find this rare sea star at a reclaimed shore. But as their natural habitat is soft, probably the sandy area of Tanah Merah is a good home for them? Wow, must look out for more of them in similar shore habitats.


A sea pen (probably Scytalium sp.) is also considered a surprise to me at Tanah Merah since my impression of this place is that it is not as rich as Changi or Chek Jawa. It's always fun to find a sea pen. Because there is usually resident porcelain crabs living on the sea pen. Can you spot it?


This is possibly a Painted porcelain crab (Porcellanella picta). I love the pink spots on its carapace which has a blending effect with the pink spots of the sea pen.

I wonder what are the brown bivalve looking structures on the sea pen...hmm.


Here's a macro close up of this cute looking pretty porcelain crab.

The final surprise for today will be this snail!


It has a nicely pattern shell with brown linings. A closeup look reveals eye stalks! Not many types of snails have such long eye stalks like the gong gong or the spider conch from the Family Strombidae.


The eye stalks and their blade-like opercula reminds me closely to the gong gong. But the shell is not plain.


An underwater shot of this beautiful gastropod reveals its beautiful eye stalks with a tentacle each, which we still don't know its function.


There is also a siphon looking thing coming out.

I was surfing the net to look for its identity. Could it be Strombus marginatus? Could it be a new record for Singapore?

Today's trip to Tanah Merah was indeed surprising and it proves to shore that return trips to seemingly less attractive shores are worth it!

Dolphins spotted off Tekukor

Just less than an hour ago, my friends and I spotted three wild pink dolphins off Pulau Tekukor! And it was the first time Pamela and I see them in our local waters! Wow.

I was happily taking photos of Pulau Tekukor when Mei Lin suddenly tapped me hard to tell me there's a group of three pink dolphins on the other side of the boat. It was around 8.36am.

Unfortunately, when I saw the dolphins, it was the last time they surfaced. Pamela said they surfaced for three to four times. Sorry that I don't have photos or videos to share. You can still check out Siyang's photos and videos from his sighting during 2007 off St John's Island.

The arrow shows the rough location of the sighting just off Tekukor. It was exciting and definitely unforgettable!