Hunter-Seeking on Kusu Island

30 May 2009 - Was out this morning with Kok Sheng, his church friends, and two of my friends for a low tide trip to Kusu Island. This trip however, is a little different from my usual ones. Today's trip is a guided trip - Kok Sheng did the guiding, and I'm the hunter-seeker. My job is to find interesting marine creatures and put them in containers to show the participants. After which, the animals are released back to the original location where they were found.

Kusu, which means "Tortoise Island" in Chinese, is also known as Peak Island or Pulau Tembakul in Malay. It is situated about 5.6km from mainland Singapore.

The island is easily accessible with a 15 minute boat ride from Marina South Pier. Here's a shot of the lagoon, with the city skyline in the background.

Eh, what's so interesting about a pile of sand? See the smooth beige-coloured thingy in the middle? That's an Acorn Worm!

Acorn worms swallow mud and sand and process these for edible bits. At low tide, they stick out their rear ends at the surface and excrete coils of processed sediments. Called the cast, this is all that most people will see of an acorn worm!

And this is a Striped Hermit Crab. Hermit crabs do not have their own shells. Instead, they move to another empty shell when they outgrow their existing one. Every empty shell is a potential hermit crab home. Please don't take any shells home!

Spotted this shrimp quite by chance. It's really small, about 2cm, and it's almost transparent! I wouldn't have seen it if it hadn't moved.

I'm not really good at identifying creatures. Is this fish a Shadow Goby?

And a nice surprise... A four-armed Common Sea Star! Five-armed specimens are definitely more common, but six-armed specimens have been seen before too!

Spotted many swimming crabs in the lagoon's tidal pools... Here's a pair.

This fella is pretty aggressive. See its threatening pose?

And this is another type of crab - Hairy Crab! These little crabs are not the same as the large 'Hairy crabs' that are served in our restaurants as seafood.

There were many fanworms amongst the corals too. This is a Banded Fanworm.

And here's another type - an Orange Fanworm.

What's this chewed bubblegum-like thingy? This pinkish, flesh-coloured creature is actually a Beige Flatworm. Some people describe this unattractive flatworm as resembling more like mobile phelgm. =S

Also spotted is this Brittle Star. As its name suggests, brittle stars are really fragile and has a tendency to fall apart. It may purposely throw off an arm when threatened. Like a lizard's tail, the star's dropped arm may continue to wriggle to distract the predator while the brittle star escapes.

There are many different types of corals and anemones on Kusu Island. Here's a picture of a soft coral and a Magnificent Anemone.

Apart from soft corals, there are many different types of hard corals and carpet anemones too...

This is a Montipora Coral. Sometimes, seahorses can be found within such branching corals.

There are many types of sponges too...

But the best and most exciting find of the day would definitely be this False Clown Anemonefish nestled in a Giant Carpet Anemone!

This fish is probably more famously known as Nemo - a name coined from the widely popular Disney movie Finding Nemo.

This is only my second time seeing a Nemo, and this one is huge! It's probably about 10cm in length.

The Nemos on our shores are known as the False Clown Anemonefish. This is to distinguish it from another closely related fish called the Clown Anemonefish. Unlike the Clown Anemonefish, False Clown Anemonefish has black bands on the top edge of its dorsal fin. The natural distribution of these two species of anemonefishes do not overlap.

Today's trip has been really interesting. It feels great to be able to share our knowledge and interesting experience with others. Here's a photo of the group in action.

All too soon, the tide turned, and it is time to leave. Goodbye Kusu Island! We hope to visit again soon!

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!