Exploring the Sakeng side of Semakau

29 January 2010 - We explored a new shore on Pulau Semakau today, at the site of the former Pulau Sakeng. At first glance, the area looked lifeless, but we were pleasantly surprised upon reaching the edge of the seawall...

Not only is the water clear, the edge of the seawall is teeming with lots of different corals and marine life!

Such as this Favid hard coral (Family Faviidae).

This is a Circular Mushroom hard coral (Family Fungiidae).

Also spotted is this huge Acropora coral (Acropora sp.) that looks like a table-top.

and here's another smaller one...

Learnt today that the bluish edge of the coral is actually the part that is growing...

and this is a Leathery soft coral (Family Alcyoniidae).

Is this another coral? Nope, this is a Sea Mat Zoanthid (Palythoa tuberculosa).

Hiding among the rock crevices were many Long-spined black sea urchins (Diadema sp.).

Moving towards higher ground, we spotted this Onch slug (Family Onchidiidae).

I was pretty amused to see these Acorn barnacles (Balanus sp.) growing on a slipper.

Oyster! Is this a Plain rock oyster (Family Ostreidae)?

This is a Zig-zag rock oyster (Family Ostreidae).

and here's another one...

Nerite snail (Family Neritidae).

Turban snail (Family Turbinidae).

This is a Black-lipped conch (Strombus urceus). I guess its name is self-explanatory. =)

Also spotted are many Drills (Family Muricidae) such as the one above...

We saw a couple of these Spurred turban snails (Astraea calcar) too.

This beautiful shell with its shiny and silvery surface caught our eye while we were making our way up the seawall. No idea what snail it is though.

Threatening skies overhead as we made our way back towards the Visitor's Centre. Luckily for us, the NEA van came to pick us up and we arrived at the admin building just as the heavens opened. Thank you NEA!