Chek Jawa & Friends

I thought I was still early when I reached Changi Poiint Ferry Terminal
& when I reached and saw Ria
Ria gave me the stunned look & exclaimed "OH! Cynthia is here!"
My first response was like "Er..Am I not supposed to be here?"
Which was actually one of my hunches that someone could have forgotten about me to Chek Jawa today
& it seems like it is

We had a pretty big group today
Dr Dan's group, Team SeaGrass and WildFilms

Chek Jawa had changed alot
Or maybe it's just me who haven been there for long...
They are building the boardwalk to the outer coast and round the coral rubble to the other side...
and constructions are ongoing
It kinda looks weird to me to have concrete boardwalk instead of those wooden ones as in Sungei Buloh
I thought those are closer to the nature
But nevermind that

Chek Jawa smells good
No dead stench that Ria mentioned previously
Meaning
IT IS ALIVE!
Barnacles (Balanus spp.) & False limpets (Siphonaria spp.)
Shrimps outta focus but we still know it's there...
Big fat juicy green mussels (Perna viridis) that will end up in your dish one day...
Goby
Cute Hairy Seahare (Bursatella leachii)
Mass of headlice! Cute Hairy Seahares!

Team SeaGrass were doing their seagrass monitoring at different sites along their transect


& of course, WildFilms also did our work

We know who didnt do their work! Just find us for the tapes!

I think everyone pretty much enjoyed themselves
& to celebrate this happy occasion
We had Yu-Sheng!


& cheered loudly
"More nudibranchs! More sea stars! More seagrasses!"

That is one new kinda Chinese New Year Celebration
& of course, a new kinda wish for the New Year
We hope to see that happen!
Do you?

Snake hunting with Sijie

A few of us were out on Wednesday evening at Pasir Ris for Sijie's snake project. Together with Murrati, Helen and Andy, I tottered over a very rocky shore over murky waters to try to catch some special snakes. Unlike the other projects where the aim was just to bag as many snakes as possible, Sijie only wanted snakes that had eaten.


It was difficult to watch so many snakes slitter by well within reach and not catch them. We waited patiently for snakes to have their snacks.


Of course, JUST as I was trying to get a better footing on the very slippery shore to avoid falling head first into the water, a snake had to splash by with a fish! I fired off a few frantic shots before the snake swam off to a distant wall opposite us. Sigh.


Later on, Sijie spotted another snake on the wall with a fish. The clever snakes bring their victims out of the water before trying to swallow them.


And swallowing seems to be a BIG problem. Especially if the fish is many times bigger than your mouth! This snake tried to swallow its catch for half an hour or more before finally giving up. It must be tough not to be able to chew your food. Imagine having to swallow something like an entire steak whole. I now better appreciate my chewing teeth. However, precariously clambering over the super slippery rocks made me envious of the graceful snakes. Sometimes, having legs is not much use.


As we approached the end of the study period, we were finally allowed to catch any snake we saw. But the tide was rising fast and snakes were soon out of reach. If the snake has not eaten, Sijie releases it. Sijie shows us how to check a snake without getting bitten or smeared by the snake's 'defensive' gunk...which smells really bad!


The team caught three snakes that have eaten! This one had obviously just swallowed a fish.


Pasir Ris mangroves were wonderfully alive. The trees thick with crabs, and all kinds of other animals on the mud. But we didn't really have time to explore much. Perhaps another time.

Sisters Island with Dr Dan

Wildfilms had a special day out at Sisters in the company of Dr Dan Rittschof from Duke University and his students, all just flown in from the U.S. This is the third year that we've had the honour of being out in the field with Dr Dan. And we all looked forward to it!


Ron was Guide in Attendance and gave an excellent introduction to our favourite shore, despite the desultory drizzle. While Dr Dan shared interesting sexy stories about crabs and hermit crabs. To find out more, you'll just have to join one of Ron's guided walks at Semakau or Chek Jawa! We've got a lot of good stories from Dr Dan to share with our visitors now.


The wildfilms crew quickly found a spider conch. James alerted us to a Blue-spotted fantail stingray (Taeniura lymma) trapped in a pool. And of course, myriad worms and slugs were discovered and discussed. But what Dr Dan REALLY wanted to see what a Giant Top Shell (Trochus niloticus). Ron found one and I found another, but he wasn't impressed. They weren't big enough!


As the tide fell, we waded out to the reef flat just outside the sea walls. Lots of corals and other reef life to explore!


And what do we have here?! Dr Dan with a bowl of sea cucumber! Both were discovered on the shore (bowl and cuke).

It's the Long black sea cucumber (Holothuria leucospilota), commonly seen on our reefs. We explained that some Singaporeans have a rather cruder Hokkien common name for the creature...ah hem. The poor sea cucumber didn't quite like being in a bowl and started to eject white sticky threads, a defensive behaviour. So we put it gently back under the rock where it and its friend were hiding. The threads stuck to Dr Dan's fingers for some time after.

After a little tour on the outside of the seawall, we stopped for a bit of a snack on curry puffs ("What's a curry puff?" our new friends ask. After struggling to describe it, it was decided the best way to find out was to just eat one!) And lovely home-made biscuits Dr Dan got from Siva.

The drizzle had stopped and after a glorious sun set, it was time to head out for Round Two and to check out the night shift on the reef.

The wildfilms crew tend to focus on slugs and ignore things with a back bone. But the sharp-eyed students were determined to find a stonefish.

And what fishes they found! Dr Dan spotted at least three of these strange eel-like fishes. And one of them was eating an octopus!!



In a few minutes, it gobbled down the octopus that was obviously alive and kicking (with all eight arms) . I have no idea what kind of fish this is!

All kinds of prickly, icky, scary, fuggly fishes were closely observed to ascertain whether they were stonefishes. Mostly beginning with someone yelling in the dark "Is THIS a stonefish?" It was quite unnerving. It got even more disturbing when suddenly everyone started spotting stingrays around them. It was a sign to move out to shallower waters. Where MORE fishes were discovered.


This prickly fish is a flathead (Family Platycephalidae). It's probably the Fringe-eyed flathead (Cymbacephalus nematophthalmus), because it has delicate golden 'eyelashes'.

Toadfishes, scorpionfishes were also examined with morbid fascination. Meanwhile, glittering silversides, needle-like half-beaks, blue damselfishes, cardinalfishes and other fishes flashed by.


Two cute little pufferfishes were also seen. They were probably the Yelloweye puffer (Arothron immaculatus), which we've not seen before!


It takes experience to be able to handle slippery, jumpy fishes without hurting them. Putting them in a pot helps everyone have a closer look without trampling or stressing the fish too much. Dr Dan calmly shows us how it's done.

On the way back, we got to see the Lunar New Year fireworks over the city. What a wonderful night out!

Thank you Dr Dan and new friends for showing us a new side of our Sisters Island!

More photos and stories of our outing on Siyang's urban forest blog and Ron's tidechaser blog

Escape to Tanah Merah

Wildfilms planned to visit Changi this holiday period but were aghast to find the entire stretch of the beach jam-packed with campers. From Changi Point to Changi Ferry Terminal. Almost every inch of space was filled with tents and, as Andy put it 'a gazillion people'. Cars were lined up along the coastal road, reducing it to one lane. Laundy was hanging out among the trees and happy people everywhere.

After picking up Andy from the carpark, we decided to head away from the rush and visit Tanah Merah.

The shore there had lots more people than we usually encountered. But at least it wasn't like Orchard Road.


Rain was building up but the kids continued to play on the vast sandy shore unperturbed.


The shore is densely covered in sand dollars and button shells. All very much alive.


Button shells have a leaf-like foot and tiny beady eyes on stalks. They were vigorously hunted by moon snails that were out in force.


Alvin came upon a little drama. This hermit crab is obviously patiently waiting for the tiny whelks to clean out the dead occupant of the shell that it has 'choped'. Behind it (upper left corner) is a smaller hermit crab in a really banged up shell, waiting to take over should the first in the queue decide the shell is not up to par.


Speaking of par, we came across a vast number of golf balls scattered on the sand. In an effort to entice Alvin to film the golf balls, we launched ala David Attenborough in hushed Voice of God mode "And here we have...the secret gathering of mating golf balls!" "A rarely observed sight, little is known about this annual ritual". Dr Andy adds "The yellow ones are the females, ripe with eggs". Alas, Alvin had a look and walked away in disgust. Later we saw a man stuff his pants pockets with the golf balls.

There was quite a lot of rubbish. Andy picked up a large hub cab!


Just as we were about to go home, a surprise! One single sea star. We've never seen them on Tanah Merah before, and I searched the whole shore and couldn't find any. We are perplexed. Perhaps it was 'released' by someone? It's very odd.

Once people on the shore realised we were shooting marine life, little kids started bringing us what they found. From tiny hermit crabs to wee fishies. One of the little girls wanted to bring the sand dollars home and we tried very hard to persuade her not to. "You don't know what to feed them, they will die"..."and smell bad" Andy added. A father dug out a large grouper from a pipe and proceeded to haul it home. There were several people casting drift nets on the shore as well as across the monsoon drain. And I saw a couple dilligently scrapping off every bit of life from under the rocks on the high shore. Sigh.


There's indeed a lot more that needs to be done in raising public awareness of our shores.

CNY eve at Sekudu

'Twas a quiet but good day out on Sekudu yesterday afternoon, away from the frenzy of CNY preparations no doubt happening everywhere on the mainland.

Sekudu has always been one of my favourite destinations, a small island, just a short boat ride out from the Changi Village jetty. There were always interesting finds on the teeming reef flat - slugs of all description to satisfy the Wildfilms' resident slimophile, and that was where we found that file snake before! Hence, it was with a sense of trepidation with which I went; after reading all the latest posts about the massive destruction on the Northern shores caused by the torrential rains last month and the resultant dip in salinity.

Thankfully enough, other than being engulfed in mounds of sea lettuce, it looked pretty much like normal, with many of our weird and wacky friends still out and about, despite the blazing afternoon sun, which came out after a brief shower.

So amidst the clacking, splashing, and the usual babble of the reef, I managed to chuckle at (not one but) two toadfish croaking and flopping, tickle a dance out of one of the many crabs around, play with my favourite slimy friends (this time it was the hairy sea hares that seemed to be everywhere on the reef), and observe more bizarre fishes in action (Ria found a cute little polka-dotted yellow boxfish, and Chay Hoon later found a fat black pipefish with pretty markings on its side). Ria in particular was quite heartened to find the anemones looking alive and well. As Sekudu is just opposite to Chek Jawa, these healthy animals will help to repopulate the devastated shore!


Island escape - looking decidedly greener than usual.


Bursatella leachii - the hairy sea hare. Egg mass can be seen in the same picture, at the upper right corner (the grey stringy stuff).


Ostracion cubicus - the yellow boxfish, a juvenile less than 2cm in diameter, which I found quite endearing due to its peculiar body shape, and the way it seems to float around through the water like a little balloon.


Unknown pipefish - black, with lighter spots along its side, forming a pretty pattern.



Generally healthy-looking anemones (except for the odd bleached one, like the yellow one in the top left corner) that will help to reseed Chek Jawa.

Who's the real predator?

2 years ago while we were out at Chek Jawa
We saw a baby octopus wriggling its tenacles franatically in the swallow water
"Weird movement" we all thought.
Until we realised it was caught by a crab, struggling to set free

How bizarre.

Yesterday while we were out at Pulau Hantu
Same scenario happened.
But
It's a snake!

"Ouchhhh" groaned Baby Yellow-lipped sea krait (Laticauda colubrina)

It caught my attention when I noticed something blue & black snake-like animal twisting on the algae-covered sponge
& my legs turned almost weak upon confirming that it is indeed a venomous reptile
Even though it is of 3cm long in diameter

FYI, I am ophidiophobic (snake-phobia). Think my close encounter with the monitor lizard at Sentosa has not make me brave enough still.

Despite so, as WildFilms mission is to 'Shoot First, Ask Questions Later', I immediately fetched the camera and caught it on tape.

Look how beautiful it is...

Right, where's the crab?
Hidden in the sponge, pinching hard on the snake
Can you see the pincer?

And all along I thought octopus and snakes eat crabs as stated everywhere in journals, magazines, Discovery Channel, wherever. But it has been twice that I saw crab being the predator of their 'supposedly-predator'.

Not only did the Earth has gone hay-wired, so does the food-chain I believe.