Little Sisters - Isn't that 'little'!

Date: 22 August 2009
Location: Little Sisters' island

Waking up at the wee hours of 4am isn't doing me any help... hehe... But with a sudden jolt of energy, I jumped out of bed in anticipation of meeting my first giant clammie at intertidal regimes!

I am now a post-graduate student in my beloved Marine Biology lab, NUS with my supervisor Dr Peter A. Todd. Together, we decided to do a large-scale census survey of the giant clam abundance in Singapore! So in order for this to work out well, I am incorporating bother subtidal and intertidal surveys. With Ria and every shore explorer's help, we will perform intertidal surveys. However, my equipment aren't here yet! So what I'm doing now is to record the GPS positions of clams!

Since giant clams are almost sessile, it is relatively easy to locate them. So the moment we arrive, Ria led the team straight to the giant clam! Here's a picture of the clam. So pretty!



After going ga-ga with the giant clam, more molluscs were spotted! First is this cute pygmy squid (Idiosepius sp.)!

And this octopus...

As I was engrossed with laying transect tapes to test my survey protocols, I did not survey every inch of Little Sisters unfortunately. But nevertheless, while I was walking along my transect lines, much life was teeming amongst the coral rubble!

This looks like a juvenile half-beak... It is an absolute cutie pie!

And another super cute fish - Copperband Butterflyfish!

A beautiful snaky anemone (Macrodactyla doreensis)... Apparently, they come in different colour morphs!

Big parasol green seaweed (Caulerpa peltata) always look so lovely, like tiny umbrella... They make me happy everytime I see them around... haha... Although everyone in the marine lab dislikes them for the reason that they easily smoulder and displace corals and organisms...

Dead man's fingers! hahaha... A type of soft coral...

Smooth leathery coral with a blue sponge!

A yellow pot sponge (Rhabdastrella globostellata)...

A super tiny Pimply phyllid nudibranch (Phyllidiella pustulosa)...

Lastly, the blue-spotted flatworm...

It was an enjoyable trip as we had another scientist along with us! He is Ivan, a Honours student working with Dr Tan Swee Hee from RMBR... It is indeed wonderful to see more student scientists taking interest in our shore animals and hopefully the animals and plants will last a year longer with every research done... =)