Semakau w Dr Dan

Good Friday reefwalk was very very fruitful, with many first sightings......

My first EVER seahorse and frogfish sightings. exciting stuff i tell u. Never seen them whilst diving too.. same for my first octopus sighting a long time ago. all spotted whilst on intertidal walks on our shores...

tiger-tail seahorse (hippocampus comes)
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Frogfish
(Antennarius sp.)

bet u can't even spot it at first glance can u? super dooper well camouflaged.. it just gulped down a fish with its lure.. hence the big tummy. at one point it even seemed to kinda barf.. but i tink it was just the imagination of the guides. heh.
check out the frogfish they saw at pulau hantu the next day too on Hantu Blogger's *super good vis* 4th anniversary dive.

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And then there was a few unusually big critters...

like this freaking thing-that-looks-like-a-rock
biggest oyster i've seen on our shores
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and this... biggest fan shell i've ever seen

last time i went changi beach with Samson there were pple with buckets collecting these there. yes apparently they are yummy.

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and then there were the unusually small critters...

unidentified sea cucumber. so tiny sia.. must be some juvenile
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and of course.. our other usual (but just as amazing) sightings..

mosaic crab

(lophozozymus pictor)
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swimming crab
(Thalamita sp.)
looks cooked right.. haha. i know! i tot it was dead (coz my dead Perisesarma turns red) but no.. its aliveee!
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unidentified anemone
thought to be a star anemone but later (according to CH) said not to be by anemone expert

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sea spider makaning a bristle worm
exciting stuff. this spider was damn fierce.
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flatworm

(pseudobiceros fulgor)

btw, can someone confirm.. what is the scientific name for spanish dancers.. issit a specific genus/species of flatworms or just all nice dancy wormy things?

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Halymenia

I find beauty in the simplest things.. *hurh hurh*
ain't this red seaweed just gorgeous?
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Mr octopus: I am (trying to be) big and scary!
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Nudibranch

(glossodoris atromarginata)
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Nudibranch

(chromodoris lineolata)
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pretty!!! branching anemone

(yet to be ID-ed)
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green blobs of ascidians on enhalus (tape seagrass)
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Dr Dan's students walking past the seagrass patch..
hmm.. who's this guy with a PAIL walking by.. hmmm...
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now we know...
drift net laid by the fisherman (aka guy-with-pail)
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CH trying to free a swimming crab
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dead tuskfish
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tis what was in the fisherman's bucket.

i guess fishing's ok if u consume what u catch, but for drift nets, its indiscriminate. well at least these fish get collected.. wonder how many swimming crabs died as bycatch.

*back-blogged* read about a person found drowned in driftnet on leafmonkey's blog.

Other links to blog entries on this trip on the wildfilms blog here.
Also check out Dr Rule's site where he blogs about the places the Duke University students (Dr Dan's students) have been to during their course in Singapore. I can safely say they've been to more nature spots on our island than most Singaporeans have been.