KS team @ Chek Jawa

Went to help out Kok sheng in his urops project at Chek Jawa today. Been wanting to help out a long time but haven't been able to till today, although time is still tight but die die must keep my promise this time. A pity Denise and Kaiqin cant make it or it will make a good day a better one.

It seemed like a long time since I have been here and the amenities at Chek Jawa has changed so much since the launch of the boardwalk. P. Sekudu the frog island in the distance and beside it, the cottage house no.1.

The finished boardwalk

My first time seeing the hairy seahare.

We saw quite a few sandfish sea cucumbers. They are a delicacy especially during the new year.

Kok sheng in the distance

The transect went smoothly and quickly as intended compared to the very first transect KS tried. We had some free time to explore the coral rubble in the evening.

See a pair of eyes? They belong to a startled crab that burrow itself into the sand

A juvenile catfish spotted by Yujie.

A fine white sea urchin found by me. As for the ID, ks can re-enlighten me again pls?

More on ks Chek Jawa project

Garang warriors at CJ Day 3, transect

Was rather prepared to get down right dirty and thirsty today but it was more than what I expected. Today was my 3rd day at Chek Jawa; me & Kok sheng's 5th consecutive intertidal trip; and today marks his first transect for his project. Today is also the international day for biodiversity! Heard its a public holiday in other countries... Y not here? It will be good to declare such meaningful holiday and create awareness.

Besides me and KS, there were also 3 of his friends who came to help out. A few back out last minute, giving him more headache to the already lack of manpower. I almost didnt wake up in time cos forgotten to set my alarm. Lucky my bio clock did its work.

Me reading GPS. I was rather stunned to hear Ria telling us at Changi point terminal (beachfleas going Sekudu at the same day) that this handy and tiny GPS has an error rate of 10m! Erm...I will pretend not to hear that.

My parther Khairul, meticulously taking the eastings to line the transect line. He was one garang warrior, not bringing any pants or footwear to change and kept getting his feet stuck in the mud at the seagrass lagoon. The only way to get out of it was to dig out his foot using bare hands. Lucky I have my trusty booties...

Raymond, another from team seagrass and weilin, the other pair taking the remaining 3 transects out of the 6. Weini was the 2nd garang warrior, also frequently getting stuck in the mud. Heard that she even fell down on the mud! But she kept on the positive side and her hearty nature brought some warmth to our tiredness.

And of cos our captain, KS running here and there to monitor and assist us. Heheh, u took this photo urself KS? Looks really imposing.

Wading through the muddy intertidals. My high ankled booties totally sunk inside.

Team seagrass gave us the fundamentals for doing the transect so it wasnt that hard. Btw sorry for not attending monitoring sessions for so long.

Din have the time luxury and time to go exploring today but we did some random shots. Here was a dog having some fun running about the far end of CJ shores.

Thick black smoke raising out from Changi. KS thought some accident had occured at the airport and I thought I might just take a picture to sell to the press ;p

A sudden thunderstorm just after we finished everything but nevertheless, still soaked.

Spent quite a long time cleaning and untangling the measuring tapes...

All in all, an extremely tiring, hot and wet day for us but a rewarding treat of fried horfun from KS makes me forgot about it. :) Got a nice dark tan too, but I was rather displeased by the bra lining look-alike tan that was form from wearing my singlet. =_= Have to wait for the next diving trip to even it.

Thanx to KS for providing most of the photos. Watchout his blog, wonderful creations for updates on this.

Chek Jawa day II, Recee

Dragging our tired bodies to Changi for the 2nd day and 4nd intertidal trip. Sitting at Changi point jetty basement waiting for people to come, we saw a huge black cloud came over from the east and engulf the whole of Changi, and Pulau Ubin. Rain started to pour as we board the boat. Not a very good start...

I was always very unprepared for rain. Lucky Kok sheng had prepared an extra poncho for me and a ziplock to protect my electronics...phew. At Ubin, I again endured the butt pain (from yest bike ride) and challenging up slopes as Kok sheng went far ahead of me. Well, felt good in some way as I was in need of exercise too. ;p

We explored the southern arm of the sandbar which was also affected by the freshwater input last dec & jan. We found a few large carpets here.

There were also quite a number of very small baby carpets there. Could this be a sign of recovery? Lets hope so. (My chopsticks were put there for scale)

Peacock anemones were all retracted back into their homes, perhaps to escape from the rainwater. Could this flexibility be the reason for them surviving better than the carpets? Not a single one was seen with their tentacles flowering and waving about.

A dead bivalve is a perfect round hole drilled into it. I always wonder how it got there when I was small (used to collect shells last time..opps). Apparently, it was created by the Moon snail which secrete acid to soften the shell and obtain the soft flesh inside.

Juvenile catfishes! Theres always something new each time :)

Mussels finding their new home at the new boardwalk.

The common resident of CJ, the huge stripped hermitcrab.

So many cake sand dollars!!! Gosh... Sand dollars are related to starfishes with mouth located at the centre and underside. They are detritus feeders.

Lastly, some beautiful and cute fiddler crabs. The males have one of their pincers enlarged several times, which is used for mating purposes; by waving it to their mates. They are not used for fighting or feeding.

Aftermath of Chek Jawa 1

My 3rd consecutive intertidal trip today...woa, its kinda fun though extremely tiring and takes up the remainder of my time (resting). Need to start reading up on my own honours project lao after this trips.

Today went to help out kok sheng in his UROPS project (on Chek Jawa) with Mr Siva as his supervisor. Managed to take the first bus to Changi, phew...thanx to kok sheng for pushing back the time or have to take cabby again.

The far left end of Changi Beach is lined with seagrasses. Worth to explore the next time.

Upon reaching Ubin we scrambled to our allocated bikes arranged by Nparks and cycled quickly to CJ. Woa...this is really a hell ride for me man. Never knew my leg muscles are so weak one. Soo exhausted when I reach CJ.

We went over to the coral rubble and found Ron and other CJ volunteers there, who were already exploring since 5 plus (we reached almost 8am).

Just in time to see them found a Melo melo. If i recalled correctly, it is also called the Bailer shell cos pple use to use these shells to bail water out of their boats. [Edit] Mmm, sorry a mistake, this is supposed to be the noble volute also =_+

Ron also showed us 2 stranded Copperband butterflyfishes. Apparently they were trapped in a bubu (fish cage).

They have a false eye at its tail end and its real eye is hidden by a copper band running across it. It was said that this will enable the predator to bit at the wrong end at the tail, thus allowing the fish to escape with minor injuries. For predators that prey from behind, they will be tricked to approach from its "rear" end, which is actually the front, thus allowing the fish to detect this danger and escape, spoiling the element of surprise

A red cowrie on a sea fan which I will surely miss if Chay Hoon didnt tell me about this. Can tell me its ID again? srry for my lack of memory.

kok sheng's focus is on carpet anemones since thats what his project is on. There were soooo many carpets at the other half of CJ! Looks like the rainy period did not affect this area.

Huge carpets, first time seeing such big ones. Must be older than me.

And more...

And more!

And there were also many peacock anemones around around CJ. Such a variety of colors!

Orange...

White/red...

And seemingly glowing green ones too.

I spotted this small little fish inside a puddle, about 3-4cm. Is this a toadfish, but I never seen such a small one before. As I flipped over the rock in that same puddle, I found a toadfish, this time im much sure with its big mouth and eyes and bigger size. So is that one above a baby?

Lots of ball sea cucumbers buried in the sand, I even found some at the northern sand bar. Btw, the part with exudes water is its anus right Ron?

Found four such sea stars during our exploration. Are they the biscuit seastars?

Slipper limpets hiding inside a Melo melo shell. These so-called limpets are actually not related to limpets (they just look like them). The interesting thing about it is that they stack on top of each other. The younger ones are males and when they get older, they will change their sex to females (aka protandrus hermaphrodites). Hence, the bottom most ones are the females and the upper most ones are the males.

The fearsome thundercrab, though I find it rather adorable nowadays. Learnt from the boatmen of my lab that they are actually edible, but only its pincers. Yup, some of my older labmates had sampled and survived so its probably true.

A bivalve with its siphon extended. It is actually sorta the feeding and breathing aparatus for the animal where water containing food and O2 is transport in and filtered.

Kok sheng hard at work

A crab covered with so many sand particles, algae and barnacles that I cant even ID it.

A close relative of Melo melo, the noble volute, with its attractive moutain designs on its shell.

Guess what we found?? A dead naked hermit crab! Yes yes, this is what will happen when u take the pretty shell home to display and rot there. Why not leave it where it is and let the hermit crabs have a home? Else they will all turned up like this.

Mass orgy of hermit crabs. Fighting for shells perhaps? Yes, another reminder not to take shells home or this will occur.

Exploring aside, we also went hunting abt the northern side of CJ for carpets for kok sheng's project, but only found a pitiful few. Nearly dehyrated there, tml tink will bring 2 waterbottles instead of one. And we dragged our tired bodies back to the jetty, braving those up-sloped roads again.

Back at the hawker centre, I found this signboard from a seafood stall. Hey we can all find them in our beautiful Singapore shores! (Stingray, sotong, Gonggong, prawn, chilli crab, mussels, cockles, flower crab and grouper fish)