Back to the wild

"Oh... So Clifford Pier is no longer existing... Opps. Are you sure you know your way to Marina South Pier?"
That's one question I was asking the cab driver this early morning with a question mark floating above my head.

Bahhhh.

Sounded so stupid, having no clue that Clifford Pier had already closed down, but it doesnt really bother me as long as there's still way to go for WildFilms trip. & yes, finally, I'm back, heading to Big Sister's Island.

Sunrise was perfect! I guess I've never seen sunrise for a very long time!

My 2nd time visiting Big Sister's Island. Left me quite an impression during my 1st trip. The team was harassed by this Jack Russel that plays with Pong Pong fruit & agressive monkeys that stole Tom's ipod. Marine animals were as well impressive but this trip's sure is much more impressive.

Ria had a short briefing to the team before getting wet

First animal found - Anemone shrimp
One of them (on the left) even has roes in it... Wooo.. Mama shrimp =)
A Phyllid that is about 5cm long

Also saw a baby stingray but I was too engrossed with capturing footages that I'd forgotten to take a snap! *slaps forehead*
& saw 2 baby octopuses too! But escaped way too fast before my camera was turned on.

When returning back to the shore, Ria spotted a real ugly fellow.
I've always wondered... why does a stonefish always have a sad face =(
Is it coz it knows it's ugly? or it's just that sad smile that makes it ugly?
Haha! >_< Just trying to act funny

Back on dry land, someone's Bonjour got stolen by the monkeys. Luckily it's just bread...

While on our way back, our boat broke down. The ropes got stuck in the propeller & one big piece of wood on the deck got torn off. So we headed back mainland & waited for another boat.

Had fun today. Finally saw a stingray in Singapore waters. Heard alot of it but seeing is believing. & I believe there'll just be more & more creatures for me to spot if I'm lucky enough. So... where shall we go next?

*winks*

Sentosa Seagrass Transect Day!

Finally, after all the preparations, it is The Day!

More than 40 volunteers turned up early this Saturday morning to document the seagrass on the last natural shore of Sentosa. The weather is wonderful, we manage to get to the shore safely and the fun begins!

All ready for action, the teams headed out all across the shores.


Laying out the lines.


Taking photos of the transect squares.


Counting the percentage cover of seagrasses
(taking special care to avoid including the Awful Algae).


This requires careful observation and recording.




Dr Raju is everywhere, taking down the GPS readings
of important points and doing a survey of the shore.

After the work is done, we very carefully walk out
to the outer shoreline as the tide receeded to a real low.


And explored many of the wonders out there.

Among the many things we saw, was this huge soft coral that looks like a pile of surgical gloves. We also saw octopus, jorunna nudibranchs, lots of hard corals, slipper corals sponges, and other marine life.

Meanwhile, Joseph Lai and his team are checking out the coastal flora. All the way from around the corner of the Tanjung Rimau beacon! No wonder we didn't see them for some time. I caught up with them as they explored a rocky pool with hard corals, fishes and other stuff.

It is quite challenging to survey this rocky cliff. Binoculars are needed. Here, the coastal flora team tries to bring down a bit of a rare plant sticking out of the tall rock face. As always, Angie's everyready umbrella saves the day, with a bit of throwing.

The team is most excited by the many rare coastal plants that can still be found on Sentosa's natural cliffs. "Podocarpus heaven!" Joseph exclaims. We await his wonderful photos and stories on his eart-h website

Also going on, is Siti's Team Seagrass doing a more complicated rectangular transect.

Throughout the day, the NParks team as well as the GIS team were everywhere lending a hand and giving advice. Thank you!

At the end of the day, we take a look at the frogfish that
Chay Hoon of wildfilms has specially found for everyone.

Isn't it so cute?!

This little fish has a lure at the top of its head to trick potential prey into coming closer. Whereupon the prey is engulfed in its huge mouth. Someone exclaimed "Oh dear, it's so well camouflaged, I might have stepped on one!"

As we gather back on the shore, we look at the photos of what we have seen.

Some kind people succumbed to my bullying to give an interview to wildfilms. Thank you! Sharing your thoughts will help other people understand how everyone can make a difference for our shores. We don't have to be scientists or specialists. Anyone can help.

The tide has come in and we turn in our data sheets. Some teams have been so diligent that they've done extra lines. And on own-self made data sheets! That's very impressive!

We take some group pictures. Here is Siti and her Team Seagrass
in their awesome special t-shirts made out for the event.

And a giant group photo! Thanks everyone!

Special thanks to the field commanders, Shoop and Albert;
Tiong Chin for driving in the working team; the NParks team for support;
and the gallant medvac team (thank goodness we didn't have to activate you guys).

At the end of the transect, two questions...

How do you wash what seems like several kilometres of tape
without ending up with a tangled mess?

...and what will happen to this wonderful Sentosa shore
with the impending developments at Pasir Panjang?

The transect will help provide a better understanding of Sentosa's last natural shore and thus changes that may happen to it. Each and every one involved in the transect made a difference. Thank you!

What the crab?!

Yesterday, we were saying something that sounded similar.

It's super low tides, the only two weeks of these in the entire year. But the heavens opened up as soon as we hit the shore. After waiting hopefully for an hour in the shelter, and enjoying quite an interesting lightning display, we reluctantly went home.

But this morning, stars twinkled in the clear velvet sky and the full moon lit up the shore. Joining us were Rians (making a second visit following yesterday's aborted attempt, bravo Rians!), Jacky and Adelle, Jacqueline and Evelyn.

Changi almost ALWAYS surprises.

Chay Hoon (but of course) found this amazing crab! We haven't the slightest clue what it is.

Is it an elbow crab on steroids? Or a juvenile box crab? We're baffled.


It looks even stranger underneath!

Chay Hoon (of course) found a slug. Fortunately, it wasn't tiny. In fact, it was HUGE. About the size of my hand!

It's Armina babai which I haven't seen for nearly four years. The last time, I also saw it at Changi. It released a kind of weird chemical smell, something like bromide.

Like other nudis, it has a pair of rhinophores at the head. However, it doesn't have external flower-like gills on its back. Instead, the gills are on the underside (see the orange things?). It has a shovel-like flap on the front like other Armina nudibranchs and it burrows too.

Chay Hoon (again) spotted a lovely moon snail that we've only since seen at Pulau Semakau and St. John's Island.

It has a bright red body with white patterns on its foot! Amazing! Again, we have no idea what it is. I still don't understand why people kill snails to collect their shells when the living snails are so much more interesting.

Adelle spotted a very large octopus!

It's quite different from the usual kind we see on our other shores. But before Chay Hoon could shoot it, it squirmed into a narrow pipe and refused to come out. (Probably my fault, for taking a photo of it with the flash. Oops).

The shore was alive with fishes!

Among the seagrasses are well-camouflaged fishes like the Carpet eel-blenny (Congrogadus subducens) which is often mistaken for an eel. And small leaf-like Filefishes (Family Monacanthidae).

The sand is teeming with fishes that are flat. The little flathead (Family Platycephalidae) has, well, a flat head.

This sole, could it be a Peacock sole (Pardachirus pavoninus)?, slid up next to me. Flatfishes like soles start life looking like other fishes with eyes on both sides of the head. This rapidly changes with the eyes moving to one side (called the eyed-side) as the fish settles on the sea bottom. There are also changes to the mouth and other parts of the body. Weird!

Greg, a kindly net citizen, recently emailed me patient explanations about how to distinguish our carpet anemone species. This made me take a closer look at those on Changi. The carpet anemones are small on Changi but almost every single one had shrimps on it!

Some had the larger anemoneshrimp with the five spots on its tail (Periclimenes brevicarpalis).

Others had teeny tiny ones. Usually several of these tiny shrimps are found, even on an anemone no bigger than a saucer!

For some reason, today I got fascinated by the sea anemones that settle on hermit crab shells. Changi is almost the only place where these are very common. One hermit crab may even have several anemones on the shell that it occupies!

Other special finds include black sea urchins and white ones, lots of brittle stars. And of course, the 'standard' Changi fare of button snails, sand stars etc.

Tomorrow, yet another super low tide!

Getting ready for Sentosa

50 adventurous volunteers gave up a Saturday afternoon to get together for the Sentosa Seagrass Transect.

Coming from all walks of life and from all ages, all have come together from a desire to make a difference for our shores.

Siti and I are most impressed, and much overwhelmed, by the heartful responses from everyone. The sign ups just kept coming in. There was even one more sign up the night before Orientation!

We did it all in the comfort and immense space of NParks' wonderful briefing room.
Thank you Wei Ling and friends for making it possible!!

Siti explained all about seagrasses and their importance, and emphasised (strongly) the difference between seagrasses and algae (seaweed). Algae is obviously not one of Siti's favourite things. She also showed how the transect equipment should be used.

We also figured out together the programme for the day, with many important inputs from everyone.

Then everyone got down to trying out the transect processes on dry land.

Figuring out the compass ...







For the trial run, we had to use make-shift stuff as Siti is still
in the midst of fixing up the Real Transect Squares for Saturday.




Laying out the transect line ...



And where to put the transect squares
(apparently NOT as indicated in the photo).




Now we're all ready for the transect!

All about the Sentosa Seagrass Transect.