Land of all Zoanthids! (Includes some current news of oil slick in Changi East)

Date: 28 May 2010
Location: Pulau Tekukor

Happy Vesak's Day to all! On this day that marks the birthday of Buddha, the team head out to Pulau Tekukor in search of giant clams. Though no clams were found, all of us had other great finds!

Just like the last trip, almost every inch of the shore and rubble was covered with various sorts of zoanthids! They come in different colours, size, and number of tentacles! Nicholas, from TMSI is currently studying the morphology of zoanthids and hopefully he can tell us whether physical appearance is enough to tell them apart!

They are such hardy animals! Hence, Oxy, also from TMSI is embarking on a study on the effects of sedimentation on zoanthids (possibly monitoring growth and colour?). Wonder how much sediment load can they can before crashing.

(Update: The white looking one, might be something else... lol!)


It was a fishy day! Everyone agreed that in almost every pool, there are at least 5 different fishes! Here shows a baby long-spined scorpionfish (Update: 29 May 2010). Throughout this trip, I noted that this fish has very similar behaviour to the stonefish, that is not moving about much. This is quite dangerous as if you do not watch your step, you might just get stabbed by those sharp spines! Yikes!

On the other spectrum of danger, the green carpet eel blenny is such a mild tempered little fish. This one here was still enough for me to take a photo. They are usually found in crevices and burrows, and rarely seen like this outside. Feeding perhaps?


The other more sluggish animals would be the flatworms....


... and the sap-sucking slugs! Just like this out of water Aplysia sp. (Ornate Leaf Slug).


The other newly discovered slug was this bryopsis slug... They were everywhere! Look closely at the following picture... Can you spot them all? This is a behaviour of aggregation - clustering, that can be explained by the presence of food for mass feeding!


Most proud photo of the day! Close-up...


During the trip, the team also saw several shy and accommodating octopuses, while I also spotted the wandering cowrie, Phylid nudibranch and the Hairy sea hare (Bursatella leachii)!


The most special crustacean of the trip would be this elusive Saron shrimp! I had almost missed it out in the pool, thinking it was a normal shrimp. Fortunately I had walk by the pool and saw it hurriedly swimming in circles. It was such a tedious task to photograph it! On the top right photo, it shows the face shot of the shrimp. :) Look closely at the body appendages on the main picture. Little bristly shrimp! Notice the bristles on the forelegs... Doesn't that remind you of a pom pom! Cheering!


Another special looking crab was this juvenile swimming crab whose identity is not known. Besides these two, others saw huge purple mud crabs and one of them even finished its breakfast of a brown floral egg crab! I wonder if these mud crabs have been caught and eaten by people. If so, will the toxins from the egg crab be passed on? Oh my!


Kok Sheng and I decided to be a little adventurous and explored the jetty side of Tekukor. We found Ria looking at the patch of seagrass! This area was more sandy and less rocky (thank goodness for the break from foot reflexology). Amongst the seagrass, there were the Halophila ovalis and Thalassia sp. The smaller photos below show two organisms that can be found amidst the seagrass patches - more zoanthids and fan worm! :)


Finally, another best find! This tiny baby white sea urchin (Salmacis sp.)! Normally found in large numbers on the Northern shores, these elusive urchins are usually found on Cyrene reefs. Today, I found them here as well!


I find the shore a completely different habitat. Perhaps it was due to the island geography, the cliff parts of the island look intact. Andrew suggested that there are still signs of primary vegetation which is a good thing! :) Moreover, the shore looks quite structured to me (with alignment of rubble/rocks) and mostly comprise of rubble. I need to read up more about shore structures when I'm researching up the giant clams shells. Hopefully it will be available to all some time later.

Just a look of Tekukor in the bright daylight. :)


Thankfully, Tekukor had no signs of oil slick or smell of oil (yet)... The waters look normally sedimented. Animals are out and about.

Unfortunately, new of Chek Jawa and Changi's plight came to us this afternoon. NEA has dispatched help to CJ in hope of a clean up. However, no matter how much clean up is done, many lives will be lost already to the impacts and toxicity of crude oil.

Nevertheless, this is a lesson for us - demonstrating the impacts and extent of oil pollution on shores, and we need to appreciate more of this nature that we have, before they are lost forever to such human-induced activity.

We are off to Kusu Island tomorrow pre-dawn. Kusu island is situated much closer proximity to the accident site. We pray that the oil will not come by the southern islands. Or else, I will be a very sad clam girl. :( Updates tomorrow.