Terumbu Pempang Laut - picture blog

Hello everyone... Today's trip to Terumbu Pempang Laut was mostly for work. Read more about the reef in wildshores of Singapore with signs of dugongs in the South! A few pictures of the trip...

Blue-spotted stingray lurks in the shallow waters of the patch reef.

Keen-eyed Kareen found a beautiful and healthy adult burrowing giant clam, Tridacna crocea.

Bill added one more giant clam to the list for the trip - T. squamosa.

Trip ended with a surprise in the shallow pools - miniature cuttlefish.

A quote that I come to appreciate a lot more these days...

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." 
- Dr. Seuss from The Lorax.

Moving north, heading for Pulau Sekudu

It's that time of the month again! And no, I'm not referring to payday. :) Another round of low tide trips when the full moon hangs up high in the sky! On this trip, we had a big group of 10 photographers to check out the shores of Pulau Sekudu.

Pulau Sekudu, also affectionately known as the 'Frog Island' can be easily spotted from Chek Jawa. Since 2007, Pulau Sekudu has been off limits to the public and for this trip, we had to apply for the NParks permit to grant us access onto the island. Taking advantage of the long and low tides, we did a survey of the marine life on the island.

I started my survey on the right side of the landing point, together with James and Rene. As we went along the trail, we were stopped by the many critters around us! I doubt that we had progressed very much because we kept stopping to take photographs!

The best find for me (and my first encounter) would be this pair of beautiful False cowries usually seen on the soft corals. Although I have been going on survey trips, every trip seems to surprise me with its impressive diversity! I definitely spent a long time taking many photographs of these animals.
 

Soft coral false cowries are ovulids.

These beautiful creatures are in fact eating these soft corals that it lives on. When completely submerged in seawater, the ovulid reveals its highly-patterned mantle over its plain shell. When placed against the soft coral, the ovulids are very well-camouflaged with its host!

Fully relaxed individual exhibiting its mantle patterns. Try spotting its eyes!

Other snail finds for me included the moon snails and cowries!

Another special find would be this heart urchin. James found one lying on the dry substrate while I found another one lying near the algae beds. When submerged in the water, they start to relax and started burrowing! Perhaps this little one here is a Maretia heart urchin? Heart urchins are very good burrowers and spend most of its time underground. They are likely deposit feeders.

For this end of P. Sekudu, the diversity of echinoderms appear to be less compared to the other end where the team spotted numerous Knobbly seastar, black-spined urchins, pencil urchins, white Salmacis urchins, cake seastar, plain sand star, etc! For me, I spotted the crown seastar and the others saw several sea cucumbers.

A long crown seastar. Also affectionately called the 'rock star'.

Pulau Sekudu is also an islet filled with many different crabs! Amidst the seagrass and algal beds lie many juvenile crabs, while the periphery of seawater had many different swimming crabs (very large ones too!).

Top to bottom: Horn-eyed ghost crab, Stone crab, Sponge crab

I spotted this carpet anemone with its breakfast - a recently moulted crab (swimming crab perhaps?).

Other crustaceans included this usually elusive Ghost shrimp that was completely out of its burrow and the green shrimps.

Ghost shrimp

Green shrimps (unknown spp.)

Pulau Sekudu is also well-known for the abundant number of seapens of different species. Although, I personally do not know how to differentiate them! None of the seapens I came across had commensals though...

The trip was nudibranch galore! My favourite nudibranch is this colorful Hypselodoris maritima.

Hypselodoris maritima found on the rubble.

I also spotted a couple starting a nudibranch family! Between the three of us, we saw so many other nudibranchs! The high density of nudibranchs may be explained by the presence of much food sources, such as sponges, soft corals, hydroids, etc... These host food are even good as egg laying grounds! Ria blogs about the abundance of sponges on P. Sekudu!

A variety of nudibranchs!

James shared his photos of various nudibranchs in his post. James also found the next two nudibranchs and both of which, are my first sightings. First up is this sponge-like nudibranch, Purple-footed nudibranch.

Atagema spongiosa - the external gills almost covering its entire rear end.

The other one would be this Yellow-footed nudibranch.

Thordisa villosa - a highly camouflaged nudibranch. It was found stuck in between the rubble.

In the shallow pools of water, fishes were darting about and making a lot of splashing noises. Russel shares videos of the large filefish and the Mangrove Whip Ray on his FB page: Singapore Reef Watch.

I've managed to photograph a couple of the slower moving fishes. :P That includes the carpet eel blenny (top 2), juvenile catfish, an unknown silver fish, toadfish, goby and pipefish!

There is still much more to learn and see of our local seashores. One thing to learn from all these shore trips is to respect the marine creatures, and in return they also leave you alone. A recent story of how the local residents beat up a mildly venomous snake for their impression of snakes is dangerous. I have heard of similar encounters while working on TMSI, St John's island where large pythons were killed out of fear. These are sad but true stories and we need to understand that animals in general, mean us no harm unless provoke. So let's learn to be more tolerant and understanding to these creatures likewise.

Have a good week ahead everyone!

Giant clams featured in ST papers

Thanks to Jose Hong, a journalist working with SPH (The Straits Times), our giant clams were featured in the Science section of the Straits Times last Saturday, 21 April 2012. Also thank you to Ria for alerting me to the article (as I was overseas then). You can find the details of the article here: http://wildsingaporenews.blogspot.com/2012/04/bid-to-repopulate-giant-clams-on.html

Just a few highlights of the trip to Terumbu Pempang Tengah as well. As with all my other survey trips, I make an effort to survey the reefs, not only for the giant clams' presence, but the conditions of the reefs. Singapore waters are heavily impacted by sediment pollution, as such, many marine enthusiasts are generally concern with the well-being of the corals and its inhabitants.

On this trip, I was glad to have found two fluted giant clams (T. squamosa) and two burrowing giant clams (T. crocea)!

Fluted giant clam (Tridacna squamosa) - a free-living species on the reefs. Can grow up to 40cm shell length.

I was particularly excited to find new individuals of T. crocea as our team have not encountered them since the last of my surveys in 2010. This species of giant clam (see below) are more difficult to find due to their more cryptic coloration and small size. Also, they are highly dependent on the availability of good surfaces for burrowing.

Burrowing giant clam (Tridacna crocea)

With live clams, dead giant clams tell stories too. In my previous surveys, I collected information on the species that had died on the reefs, and the species as well. Although we do not see some species alive anymore, their dead shells are indicative of their previous presence and the fact that our reefs had once supported them! Such information are useful for interpretation of our 'old' reefs too. :) It's a tedious type of study and I'm still trying to figure out how to make my interpretations more accurate!

Dead burrowing giant clam. A small individual, it tells us that our reefs can support juvenile clams, i.e. potential recruitment.

Besides the giant clams, I noted the presence of three seagrass species: Spoon seagrass, Tape seagrass and Sickled seagrass. In fact, I think there is a healthy community of seagrass on this reef!

Amongst the corals, rubbles and seagrass, lives a healthy group of animals...

Special find of the day: Heart cockle (Corculum cardissa)

Starry flatworm (Acanthozoan sp.)

Unknown species of shrimp. Found by Marcus Ng.

Medium-sized cushion seastar. Poor fella was leaking on one corner.

Blue-spotted stingray

Tiger-tailed seahorse (Hippocampus comes)

With all reefs, comes a few photos of the corals themselves...

Mushroom coral (Fungia sp.)

Reef scape. It may look brown and plain, but each coral head in this photo consists of hundreds of individual life.

An interesting find! A coral head fully broken apart! You can see the white skeletal structures. My colleague suggested lightning strike!

Struck by lightning?

Once again, thank you Jose for featuring our gentle giants of the sea! :)

Photo Blog: Excursion to Raffles Lighthouse with MOS Tan (26032012)

Underwater photos from NParks staff, Collin Tong and Lim Liang Jim. :)

Giant clams (Subfamily Tridacninae)

Transplanted fluted giant clam, Tridacna squamosa (~5 years old; 17.5cm shell length).

Following my previous post (and I read a comment on MOS Tan's FB page), this is the transplant clam. The fluted giant clam, Tridacna squamosa are usually greenish, brown and yellow. Individuals were transplanted in early January 2010. Two years down and this is the sole survivor! Do check out the video posted by MOS Tan of these babies' parents (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=354948054547976).

Reef Enhancement Units (REUs)

As part of an ongoing coral reef restoration effort in Singapore, these REUs were deployed in the early 2000s. Such units could be found on several of our coral reefs such as Raffles Lighthouse, Kusu Island and Pulau Hantu. A preliminary study showed that these units can enhance surface area on the reef and improve recruitment from corals. The study was published by Loh et al. in "Preliminary study of community development and scleractinian recruitment on fibreglass artificial reef units in the sedimented waters of Singapore".

Tubastrea sp. (Coral)

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Other invertebrates

Phoronid worms (Polychaete)

Cushion seastar (Echinoderm)

Feather seastars (Echinoderms)

Diadema sp. sea urchins (Echinoderms)

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Other vertebrates

School of damselfish!

Grouper resting on a Diploastrea sp. coral

Divers! From the left: MOS Tan with NParks staff Jeffrey Low.

A great day-out for both divers and critters! Thank you MOS for the lovely pictures below. Again, thanks to everyone on the trip for the great company and knowledge.

Photo credit to MOS Tan (FB page).

Photo credit to Khairah (using MOS camera).

Snap! Someone took a photo of MOS enjoying his photography. :)

On a side note... Here's what I have been doing so far and stay tune to read about it!

Dive excursion to Raffles Lighthouse with MOS Tan Chuan-Jin

Last Monday, I had the privilege to go on a dive excursion organised by NParks for our minister, MOS Tan Chuan-Jin! The trip was attended by staff from NParks, Ministry of National Development, NGO Blue Water Volunteer Dr Zeehan and nature blogger (aka me!). I have to say, that I was really shy (and a little timid) being amongst everyone from the related government agencies... It turned out that everyone was very chatty and they even asked about my giant clam project! During the entire trip, everyone shared about our nature places to MOS Tan and he too, shared with us about his views. Of course, it wasn't just solely 'work matters'... MOS Tan also shared with us about his diving experience. Did you know that MOS Tan learnt diving in the UK? That's really freezing cold waters!

Paparazzi of the people on board (MOS Tan in orange; Dr Lena Chan; Khairah from MND). Thanks to Jeffrey Low (far right) for the opportunity to join the trip. (J. Low looking very happy here... :P)

After an hour of ride, we finally reached our destination for the day! Raffles Lighthouse, or also known to some as Pulau Satumu (loosely translated as 'One Tree Island'), is the southernmost tip of Singapore's territorial waters. Just beyond the left or right of this island, we are easily into the Indonesian waters.

This photo of the light house was taken during my last coral spawning trip in April 2010. Raffles Lighthouse has been a long-running study site for our work in NUS and continues to be one of the healthiest coral reefs that we have in Singapore. It also holds the highest number of giant clams (both broodstock and natural clams) per unit area.

Just before the dive, J. Low (center) briefing and giving a short orientation on diving to MOS Tan (far right) and Whoo Kiat (foreground). Both of them have not dived in Singapore yet!

One of the trip's aims is to show MOS Tan our coral reefs and its biodiversity. Raffles Lighthouse is one of Singapore's most representative example of rich biodiversity despite the prolonged impacts from sediments and coastal reclamation. Despite the small reef area, Raffles Lighthouse has a species richness of 141 based on Huang et al. (2009). A spectacular number that may even surpass our neighbouring coral reefs in the region.

NParks Director Mr Wong Tuan Wah (foreground) and Senior Biodiversity Officer Mr Collin Tong ready to snap photos of our local biodiversity.

Mr Wong asked me about our giant clam project's progress and I'm happy to say that we are making good headway with it, in hope of reintroducing these iconic invertebrates to our local reefs. I also shared with MOS Tan the extent of our surveys and the number of species we have. Interestingly, MOS Tan's first question for me on giant clams was "Can we eat it?" haha! A question that I find amusing as it occurs to me that Singaporeans relate certain marine animals with their stomach. :)

From far left: Mr Wong, Whoo Kiat, Collin and MOS Tan all ready to take a dip in our waters!

Look at how clear the waters were on that day! You can see everyone's fins! haha... When I eventually jumped in, my jaw dropped... The visibility was FANTASTIC! I mean it! The top-down visibility was 7m (measured using Secchi disc by Melvin) and across visibility of at least 6m... Zee and I were buddy pairs, and though we were busy looking around, it was still easy to find her! It was probably my deepest dive at Raffles Lighthouse, where at 15m deep, I could see the sloping reefs very clearly (all those fishes that I couldn't see before, can be seen now!).

On my way to visit my giant clams, I found this! The Nemo family in the Merten's anemone (Stichodactyla mertensii)... The photos below were taken in September 2010 and then, there were only two medium false clownfish... The family has grown! A large female, two medium males, and two new fish fry! Wow! How they have grown, and likewise the anemone has grown almost twice its previous size!

Underside of the Merten's anemone... A key taxonomic feature is the regular pinkish bumps.

It was a really good day for me too... I found one of my transplanted giant clam baby from batch August 2008! After the babies had grown, I had to let them go and grow up in the 'wild'... 24 clams were placed on Raffles Lighthouse and now, only one remains. Though it is uncertain what had happened to the 23 others, I'm very happy to see the individual growing up well and healthy... It is encouraging to see that our clams can adapt to the changing environment...

Everyone were in smiles and discussing happily of our sightings later on the boat. MOS Tan also enjoyed the dives and the boat trip out to sea... For me, it is heartening to see everyone on board enjoying themselves about our nature places. As I continue to learn more about how our nature places are being managed and gazetted, I realised that we need to be practical, yet creative. As our country progresses, technology and creativity are likely tools that can help protect our nature places. That's where Y-generation comes in! For example, producing iPhone apps that incorporates our nature places! Just a recent trip out to Pasir Ris, I was introduced to Vito and family who designed an app for Pasir Ris Boardwalk! Very neat!

Dive log for my Raffles Lighthouse trip. :)

Before I end my post, I would like to thank all the senior NParks staff for this opportunity to join the trip and for their continued interest in working with us on our giant clam projects! Also, not to forget MOS Tan and the MND staff for their company during the dives... Cheers to all...