Singapore's living shores are revealed in full glory during the brief spring low tides usually at the magical pre-dawn hour. The first of the series of super low morning tides for 2008 has just passed. What were some of the marvellous sightings?A bunch of low-tide regulars spent the last six days out exploring the shores in the early hours of the morning. Here's some of what were seen.
Day 1: Changi
On 8 Apr (Tue), wildfilms explored Changi just before dawn. And the shores were alive with many volutes.
As well as two of possibly the same species of sea stars! 
Although they had very different colours and patterns.
Blog about this tripChangi encounters on the wildfilms blog
Day 2: Tuas
On 9 Apr (Wed), TeamSeagrass, Schering Plough were out at Tuas to monitor the seagrasses there. The Tuas shores seemed to have recovered with flourishing sea fans everywhere!
As well as a large Cake sea star!
and sea horse!
Blogs about this trip- Quick check of marinelife at Tuas on the wildfilms blog
- Other encounters on the teamseagrass blog
On 10 Apr (Thu), regulars of TeamSeagrass braved an amphibious landing on Cyrene Reef.
The reef has all but two of the seagrass species recorded for Singapore. And also has living reefs and sandy shores, teeming with strange and rare creatures. On this trip, a NEW sea star was encountered, believed to be a first record of Pentaceraster sp. for Singapore!
As well as other special echinoderms. More shared on Kok Sheng's wonderful creations blog.There were also seahorses, corals and other marinelife. But the most amazing encounter was the Marvellous Melibe, a spectacular large nudibranch.
Which has an expandable hood-like thing at the front with which it traps and eats crustaceans!Blogs about this trip
- A roundup of all the most interesting sightings on the nature scouters blog
- EVEN more sightings detailed on the wonderful creations blog
- Strange nudis and other sightings on the teamseagrass blog
- NEW stars on the wonderful creations blog and budak blog
- A new urchin on Cyrene on the budak blog
- Melibe swimming video clip on the colourful clouds blog
- More Melibe and TeamSeagrass antics on the wildfilms blog
On 11 Apr (Fri), a small team explored a new shore (new in the sense that they haven't yet documented it). Although it was rather disappointing in diversity, yet it had lots of Crown sea stars!
And a rare coastal climber and fig tree were recorded.
All the details about these special plants shared on Joseph Lai's flying fish friends blog.Day 5: Chek Jawa
On 12 Apr (Sat), TeamSeagrass were back on the shores at Chek Jawa to set up a new transect site to monitor the rare seagrass Halophila beccarii! The site overlooks the scenic Pulau Sekudu or Frog Island, which lies just off Chek Jawa.
Beccari's seagrass is considered a rare and uncommon seagrass with a distribution restricted to the Bay of Bengal and South China Sea.
But on Chek Jawa, TeamSeagrass found enough of this rare seagrass to start a 50m x 50m transect to monitor its growth and health.Other special finds included ovulid snails on a soft coral.
And the amazing Bubble shell snail!
as shared on the ramblings of a peculiar nature blog.Alas, there were several sightings on this trip of sea stars and other echinoderms that appeared rather ill and unwell.
Kok Sheng has consolidated these sightings and given a scientific analysis of the situation on his cj project blog.Blogs about this trip
- MORE amazing marine encounters on the nature scouter blog
- Bubble snails, horseshoe crabs, more sea stars on the ramblings of a peculiar nature
- All about the people, visitors, seagrassers and more on the teamseagrass blog
- More sightings Beyond the Boardwalk on the budak blog
- Setting up the new transect site and low-hanging flowers on the wildfilms blog
- Anecdotal observations of stress at Chek Jawa recently: making sense of the recent observations of stressed sea stars, sea cucumbers and other marinelife at Chek Jawa recently on the cj project blog
While on the same day at the same time, the Blue Water Volunteers were conducting an exciting ReefWalk at Kusu Island.
Their blog entry for the trip is entitled The Return of Mr Stonefish, which suggests one of the highlights of the trip!Day 6: Chek Jawa Boardwalk
On the last of the low tides, 13 Apr (Sun), the Naked Hermit Crabs introduced Chek Jawa from the Boardwalk to yet another enthusiastic team from Outward Bound Singapore.
Even without going to the ground itself, the shores are fascinating. Here's some of the favourite sightings shared in the Naked Guestbook.
More trips during the same period!
Here's some blog entries about other trips that also happened during this low spring tide:
- Finding Nemo on Sentosa: a Biophilia Programme on the lekowala! blog
- Changi intertidal tour: with sighting of green knobbly sea star on the manta blog
- Chek Jawa walk: on the tidechaser blog
Links to more
Latest blogs about Singapore's wild shores sightings, issues, events.
1 comment:
That was a great sum up of a wonderful week filled with fabalous encounters with our reef during low tide. Looking forward for more to come.
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