Sex, sea turtle, seagrasses and super star!

So much has happened during the recent low spring tide, it's hard to decide where to start.

But certainly the highlight must be the annual spawning by our hard corals!

Many waited with bated breath as the time of the year approached for mass spawning on our reefs. So it was with relief and delight that we finally hear that they Did It again this year.

Shared on the blooooooooooo blog, our corals were spawning at Raffles Lighthouse!
She also shares that coral spawning in Singapore was first recorded by Dr James Guest of Tropical Marine Science Institute, NUS in 2002. And that least 18 different coral species from ten genera and five families (Acroporidae, Faviidae, Merulinidae, Oculinidae and Pectiniidae) have been observed to spawn in our waters!

During that dive, a nurse shark was also observed and shared on the urban forest blog.

Alas, the volunteers at Hantu did not see mass spawning among the corals at Pulau Hantu during the Earth Day Coral Spawning dive on 24 Apr.

But they sighted Betsy - the ginormous resident hawksbill turtle at Hantu!

Other sightings included lots of colourful nudibranchs and flatworms, a sea horse, acropora goby, razor fish, a pregnant pipefish.

Blog entries about this trip

• Video clip of Betsy on the hantu blog
• Earth Day Coral Spawning dive on the hantu blog
• Coral Spawning Dive on the confessions of a career breaker blog
• Another Year of Waiting Then... on the colourful clouds blog

The Hantu Bloggers were back in the waters to explore Hantu on 27 Apr and spotted more nudibranchs, sea stars, feather stars, a GIANT cowrie, sting ray, sea horse and had encounters with jellyfish.
Blog entries about this trip

• I Would Rather "Hug" The Hydroids Than... on the colourful clouds blog
• Hantubloggers dive on hbing's blog
• Dive Hantu on the manta blog

Meanwhile, a bunch of intrepid volunteers spent the low tide hunting for echinoderms with Dr Lane, co-author of A Guide to Sea Stars and Other Echinoderms of Singapore.

They spent Earth Day 22 Apr on Pulau Semakau. While they didn't find too many echinoderms, they did spot lots of other marine life including cuttlefish, and a really huge nudibranch.And Sam remarks: "Good Lord! Some moronic fisherman left his brain behind!"
He later explains: "Actually it's a brain coral (Family Mussidae)"

Blog entries about this trip

• Semakau under the Stars on the budak blog
• Echinoderm hunting with Dr Lane on the nature scouter blog
• Echinoderm hunting on Semakau on the ramblings of a peculiar nature blog
• Earth Day with Echinoderms on Semakau on the wildfilms blog
  

The echinoderm hunters had much better luck on Cyrene Reef on 25 Apr. This submerged reef in the middle of our port was simply teeming with sea stars and other echinoderms! This montage of Knobbly sea stars from the nature scouter blog shows the stunning variety in just one kind of sea star.
Although lots of echinoderms were spotted, it was only in the dying minutes of the low tide that Vyna found the sought after Special Star!
This beautiful jewelled sea star is a new record for Singapore! It is Pentaceraster sp., possibly Pentaceraster tuberculatus. It's amazing that a reef in the middle of our port can be rich not only in ordinary but also extraordinary marine life.

Other sightings include a fabulous red feather star, a flag-bearing fish, octopus, sea hares and more.

Blog entries about this trip

• Star studded Cyrene on the wonderful creations blog.
• Urchins, sea cucumbers and other creatures of Cyrene Reef on the wonderful creations blog
• Ah! Who can resist the call of Cyrene! on the ramblings of a peculiar nature blog
• Super Star of the Echinoderm Hunt - Part II on the nature scouter blog.
  
• Cyrene: Desert Oasis in the Sea on the leafmonkey blog.
• And the search continues on the career breaker blog
• MORE photos and stories on the budak blog on stars and urchins and crustaceans
• Stars of Cyrene about the volunteers of the hunt on the wildfilms blog
  

Meanwhile, the volunteers of TeamSeagrass were busy too!

A small team of Seagrassers set up and manned a booth about seagrasses at Singapore Polytechnic's Earth Day event on 22 Apr.With specimens including an unfortunate baby dugong (which has been dubbed Bruce), the volunteers share about the importance and plight of seagrasses.

TeamSeagrass also monitored the seagrasses of Sentosa's natural shores on 24 Apr.

In addition, there were lots of other activities ...

There were walks

• At the Chek Jawa Boardwalk, the Naked Hermit Crabs held a special Earth Day walk for the public and another introduction for Outward Bound Singapore.
• At Pulau Semakau, walks with the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research guides. More on discovery blog and manta blog and tidechaser blog.

There were talks

• Debby of the Hantu Blogger gave a talk about Hantu entitled "Southern Haunt".
• Jeffrey Low of NParks Conservation Division gave a talk entitled "Are there Coral Reefs in Singapore?"

And there was training

• ReefAlert Training was conducted, more on the ashira blog.

There's lots to discover about our shores! And much work to be done for them!

Here's more about what you can do for our reefs and shores.