Hide & Seek at Terumbu Selegie

Rise and shine for our maiden voyage to Terumbu Selegie. It is a patch reef off on the eastern side of the islands' cluster... According to Kok Sheng, it's approximately the size of the large lagoon on Sisters' Island!

Because this reef is located near the channel fairway, rapid currents can be observed and any careless mistake could get us swept away from the reefs!
Thanks to Jumari and Alex, we safely landed on the reef just before dawn and here's a view of the nearby beacon on the patch, with the backdrop of Sentosa.

Upon landing, I found this juvenile oreo-cookie nudibranch/polka-dotted nudibranch (Jorunna funebis). A common nudibranch on our shores, they can be found on almost anything... The others on the team spotted several of them.

Today is quite a slug-ful day for me! I spotted this Bohol nudibranch (Discodoris boholiensis) gliding on the sandy beds...

A juvenile Black-margined nudibranch (Glossodoris atromarginatus)...

This is not a nudibranch but an Ornate leaf slug (Elysia ornata)...

The shore comprised mainly a dead coral rubble zone surrounding a sandy beach. Towards the edges of the shores, more live corals can be seen. After a while, everyone started to squat down and looked under the rocks...

In the small pools, many of this shrimps could be seen darting about and taking cover...

Some pools housed these giant carpet anemones housed several five-spot anemone shrimps... One of the anemones even had this special damselfish commensal - Three-spot dascyllus.

An unusual find by Ivan - perhaps a squat lobster?

Kok Sheng was very happy when Ivan found this pretty orange seastar... We shall wait for his ID on this seastar.

I found this seven-armed seastar that had been seen on several other rubble reefs.

Another under-the-rock sighting was this BIG heart urchin... Previously only seen on Pulau Sekudu (Northern shores), this is a new record for Southern shores - Oval maretia heart urchin (Maretia ovata).

With the many holes and crevices, octopus is never too far and indeed I managed to capture one on camera! :) They are such sneaky fellas gliding away immediately or squirting ink! Just before departure, Chay Hoon yelped after being frightened by the octopuses.

Not forgetting the anemones, I only found one type - Phymanthus spp.





There simply are so many variations of the Phymanthus spp. and only a few have been identified. There is still so much to learn and identify on our reefs.

As the low tide week closes in, we can put a tick on Terumbu Selegie in our check list of islands to visit. I can't wait for the next round of visits! :)