Soft corals at St. John's
As another intrepid bunch of beachfleas headed out yesterday, the weather turned wet.
Regardless, we valiantly pushed on. Upon arrival at the jetty, Chay Hoon did a lucky draw of ponchos from the 'Gucci Bag' (our little bag used to prop up the video cam during field shoots, which is usually stuffed with old ponchos). She found enough ponchos for those who OBVIOUSLY did not read grumpy instructions about proper field preparations.
One unlucky person had to use the very beat up poncho that had long been downgraded to groundsheet because it was full of holes. It didn't smell too good either from being in a plastic bag for probably 2 seasons. Well, that's what you get for not bringing your own wet gear :-)
We had quite an international team with people from South Africa, France and the U.S. It's a pity Ron wasn't with us to guide them. He was instead having a great time guiding at Pulau Semakau, as we found out from his tidechaser blog.
A very soggy team headed out to check out St. John's shore, usually densely packed with corals. On this trip, we felt there was quite a bit more sand on the lagoon bottom than usual. And we noticed there was a landslide on the coastal area facing the lagoon.
I decided to focus on the softies as the water was a little too high to photograph the hard corals on the reef crest.
These tiny little corallimorphs encrust the coral rubble with their brightly coloured discs.
St. John's reef flat is festooned with all kinds of soft corals. Sometimes carpeting large areas of the bottom. These leathery soft corals come in bizarre shapes. Some like ruffly flat omelettes. Others remind of pink surgical gloves. Yet others like bunches of brown furry grapes.
They are living animals comprising tiny polyps that basically look like anemones, with a long body and a ring of minute tentacles. These polyps live together in a colony with a shared leathery tissue.
For some reason (possibly the continuous and annoying drizzle), there were LOTS of Giant reef worms (Eunice aphroditois) out and about. I saw four of them, each shooting disconcertingly out of their hidey holes to forage nearby. These very long and scary-looking worms are vegetarians. But they can give a nasty bite if they are disturbed.
With creepy tentacles and a gazillion little legs down the endless length of its body, it has a face that only a mother could love. But it does have a lovely irridescent body. It is identified by the white rings near its head.
Of course slugs were discovered, long black sea cucumbers considered, all kinds of hard corals pondered upon. Mr Budak found a squirmy worm eel! More about his encounters on this trip on his budak blog
Alas, the tide soon turned and we had to leave before it became really dark. So we didn't catch the night shift of octopus etcetra.
Morning tides are much more exciting, when the nightshift is out partying and the shores are at their best. Can't wait for them to start next month!
Regardless, we valiantly pushed on. Upon arrival at the jetty, Chay Hoon did a lucky draw of ponchos from the 'Gucci Bag' (our little bag used to prop up the video cam during field shoots, which is usually stuffed with old ponchos). She found enough ponchos for those who OBVIOUSLY did not read grumpy instructions about proper field preparations.
One unlucky person had to use the very beat up poncho that had long been downgraded to groundsheet because it was full of holes. It didn't smell too good either from being in a plastic bag for probably 2 seasons. Well, that's what you get for not bringing your own wet gear :-)
We had quite an international team with people from South Africa, France and the U.S. It's a pity Ron wasn't with us to guide them. He was instead having a great time guiding at Pulau Semakau, as we found out from his tidechaser blog.
A very soggy team headed out to check out St. John's shore, usually densely packed with corals. On this trip, we felt there was quite a bit more sand on the lagoon bottom than usual. And we noticed there was a landslide on the coastal area facing the lagoon.
I decided to focus on the softies as the water was a little too high to photograph the hard corals on the reef crest.
These tiny little corallimorphs encrust the coral rubble with their brightly coloured discs.
St. John's reef flat is festooned with all kinds of soft corals. Sometimes carpeting large areas of the bottom. These leathery soft corals come in bizarre shapes. Some like ruffly flat omelettes. Others remind of pink surgical gloves. Yet others like bunches of brown furry grapes.
They are living animals comprising tiny polyps that basically look like anemones, with a long body and a ring of minute tentacles. These polyps live together in a colony with a shared leathery tissue.
For some reason (possibly the continuous and annoying drizzle), there were LOTS of Giant reef worms (Eunice aphroditois) out and about. I saw four of them, each shooting disconcertingly out of their hidey holes to forage nearby. These very long and scary-looking worms are vegetarians. But they can give a nasty bite if they are disturbed.
With creepy tentacles and a gazillion little legs down the endless length of its body, it has a face that only a mother could love. But it does have a lovely irridescent body. It is identified by the white rings near its head.
Of course slugs were discovered, long black sea cucumbers considered, all kinds of hard corals pondered upon. Mr Budak found a squirmy worm eel! More about his encounters on this trip on his budak blog
Alas, the tide soon turned and we had to leave before it became really dark. So we didn't catch the night shift of octopus etcetra.
Morning tides are much more exciting, when the nightshift is out partying and the shores are at their best. Can't wait for them to start next month!
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