Starry Finds of Changi

25 May 2009 - Was out exploring the shores at 4am this morning. Today's destination: Changi Beach - my favourite shore! And it's not difficult to see why I love this shore. The place is teeming with marine life!

A trip to Changi Beach is always a star-studded affair; literally, for this shore is "strewn" about with sea stars of all kinds! And they come in different shapes, colour, pattern and sizes! Here are just some out of the hundreds that we saw...

This is a Biscuit Sea Star. Don't you think this neatly shaped star looked as though it was cut from a cookie-cutter?

And this is an orange Cake Sea Star. These stars can come in a variety of patterns and colours, from black, brown, red, to even green.

And here's another one, which comes with a stunning splash of red at the centre.

It can be rather difficult to differentiate between biscuit and cake sea stars for the two species do look quite similar! Am not too sure which species this is, but I think it's a cake sea star.

Is this also a cake sea star?

And here is another super tiny one - it's only about 1 cm across!

This is a Spiny Sea Star. Spiny Sea Stars are sometimes confused with biscuit or cake sea stars as the three species do look quite similar at first glance!

However, if you look closer, spiny sea stars tend to be more "rough looking". There are many spiny bumps, sometimes with very large flat plate-like spines on its upper side, and many small spines along its arms.

And this is yet another type of sea star - a Painted Sand Star.

And this, is a Plain Sand Star. Unlike the painted sand stars, plain sand stars are smaller, and more common. As their name suggests, these stars can be found on sandy or silty shores.

Here's another one...

A trip to Changi is imcomplete without some special finds. And the two stellar finds this time are....

A pair of Luidia Sand Stars! These beautiful stars are sometimes seen on Changi, but are pretty rare.

And the next surprise... An Eight-armed Sea Star! This star is also pretty rare, and is listed as "endangered" on the Red List of threatened animals in Singapore.

The shore is peppered with many different types of anemones...

Such as these Common Peacock Anemones which come in a variety of colours.

Also spotted quite a number of Carpet Anemones today...

I can't remember what this is... but I thought it was pretty interesting as it was spinning around slowly when Kok Sheng spotted it.

Spotted this too... Not too sure what it is. Is it a Sea Pencil?

Saw this among the seagrass... I think this is a Orange-clawed Snapping Shrimp.

We spotted quite a number of crabs on the shore too. This brightly coloured crab is the Purple-legged Swimming Crab.

And here is another member of the swimming crab family. Many Singaporeans would probably recognize this species. Yes, it's none other than the yummy Flower Crab!

There were quite a number of these Geograhpic Sea Hares on the shore too...

Chay Hoon found this stunning Sea Apple Sea Cucumber. These rare sea cucumbers are often harvested for the aquarium trade. Ironically, they do not make good aquarium specimens as they are often toxic to their tank mates.

There were many of these Thorny Sea Cucumbers too...

Here's another one with its feeding tentacles extended.

This is another type of sea cucumber - an Orange Sea Cucumber.

And this is yet another type of sea cucumber - a Ball Sea Cucumber.

There were many of these Black Sea Urchins scattered about on the shore too...

And Kok Sheng spotted this much more uncommon one... a Pencil Sea Urchin (aka Thorny Sea Urchin)!

We saw quite a number of these Seagrass Pipefishes too...

And many Horseshoe Crab moults... Some were simply huge, I came across one that was easily over 30cm in diameter!

After seeing so many moults, we finally came across a live Horseshoe Crab! This prehistoric-looking creature has been around since before the time of dinosaurs. It is not a crab, but more closely related to spiders.

Today was a really "octopus-sy" day. We came across this octopus "crawling" on the shore with its tentacles!

And this huge one, trying to camouflage itself in the shallow depression on the sand...

And here's another one, hiding itself in a receptacle.

We were all entertained by this Smooth Seagrass Octopus hiding in a broken glass. It kept squirting water at us! =)

It was an especially humid day today and we were all drenched in sweat less than 15 minutes into the trip! Nevertheless, it was a really great trip with many interesting finds. The shores of Changi is full of surprises and never fails to disappoint!

Adventures on Sentosa Island

13 May 2009 - A group of us were out at 7am today to explore the shores of Sentosa island. Now, you may wonder, would there be any marine life in areas as heavily developed and commercialised as Sentosa?

The answer? You bet! And this time, we're not exploring natural shores, but the man-made islet opposite Siloso Beach.

The substrate at the islet was rather silty and every step we took made the water murky. Nevertheless, the group still managed to make some interesting finds like this Laganum Sand Dollar.

Laganum Sand Dollars are rather rare. They are listed as 'Vulnerable' on the Red List of threatened animals of Singapore. Thus, it was really a nice surprise to find one in this man-made lagoon.

Another interesting find will be this tiny horseshoe crab. It is only about 1cm in diameter!

There were plenty of these Pearl Conch (better known as "Gong-Gong") on the shores... See its cute little eyes peeking out at us?

Another surprise find will be this Polka-Dot Nudibranch which Kok Sheng found.

And here's another interesting creature - a Spotted Moon Crab! This fella is really quick at burrowing into the sand!

Spotted this track while exploring the area near the rocks... Can you figure out what made this?

It's a track left behind by a monitor lizard!

And quite by chance, we spotted a huge colony of these Common Sea Stars near where the tracks were. They are really well-camouflaged, lying half-buried in the sand. But once you spot one, the rest just seemed to just "pop" into sight! They are probably at least 50 of them in this area. We caught this pair engaging in some "hanky-panky". =P

And while Kian Wah and I were bending over to photograph the sea stars, this Blue-tailed Penaeid Prawn suddenly sprang from its burrow and stranded itself on the sand right in front of us!

And here's a photo of the "rescued" prawn. We later released it back to the sea. =)

After this little episode, the group decided to check out another shore nearby - the natural reef at Tanjong Rimau.

This is my second visit to the shore and I'm nevertheless still amazed at the amount of corals there. The photo above is just a small sample of what we saw.

Also spotted is this special nudibranch. I've no idea what species this is though...

Many different types of crabs can be found in the coral reef area. This is a Hairy Crab.

And this is a Brown Egg Crab (aka Floral Egg Crab). It's poisonous, so don't attempt to eat it!

This Red Egg Crab is also poisonous and cannot be eaten.

Another poisonous crab we saw today is the Mosaic Reef Crab. It looks rather similar to the Red Egg Crab, but has more white mottled patterns on its red shell. Unfortunately, it scuttled away too quickly for me to get a picture.

The funny thing was, as the mosaic crab scurried to hide underneath a rock, it "chased out" this Three-spined Toadfish!

Some people find this fish ugly, but Kok Sheng and I think it has a pretty cute face! I didn't manage to get a close-up shot of its face, but you can check out Kok Sheng's photo here.

We found a few of these cowries too...

And a Reef Bristleworm...

The group today was pretty adventurous and we explored the area beyond the beacon. In fact, we took a 30 minute walk round the island to finish our trip at the shore near Underwater World!

As you can see, the terrain was not that easy to navigate... Very rocky, which means lots of foot reflexology! Some areas can be a bit slippery too...

Nevertheless, it was a pretty good walk. We saw some interesting stuff, like this patch of zoanthids in a rock pool.

There were a couple of Orange Fan Worms in the rock pool too...

And plenty of gobies in the tidal pools. I think this is a Common Frill-fin Goby.

Here's another cute looking fish. Not sure what species it is though...

And another one... Is this a Bengal Sergeant?

There are plenty of these snails too. They can be found in a variety of colours and patterns!

Soon, it is time for us to say goodbye to this beautiful shore. Tanjong Rimau is not only home to wonderful marine life; we also got to admire the spectacular natural cliff formations of Sentosa!