Thursday, April 9, 2009

Semakau Walk 9 April

Today, we had a short exclusive intertidal walk with some journalists from the Asian Journalism Fellowship.

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The tide was still high when I reached the intertidal to hunterseek. Two great billed herons (Ardea sumatrana) were feeding at the seagrass lagoon and one spread out its magnificant wings and flew off as I approached.

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It has been awhile since I last saw a blue spotted fan tailed ray (Taeniura lymma). This stingray, upon seeing me, quickly buried itself under the sand. You can still see the outline of its body on the left side of the photo.

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I found this swimming crab that have an extremely soft shell! It must have just newly moulted.

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This snail is one of our favourite local seafood delicacy, the Gong Gong (Laevistrombus canarium).

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The anemone shrimp (Periclimenes brevicarpalis) makes its home on the sea anemone, scavenging on any food on this cnidarian. It is even known to nibble of their tentacles if they go hungry!

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Male fiddler crabs have a very much enlarged pincer for attracting their opposite sex and fighting. Notice how big this porcelain fiddler crab's (Uca annulipes) pincer is compared to the left pincer which is used for feeding.

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Last but not least, the synaptid sea cucumber extend its feeding tentacles to filter off any suspended food at the seagrass meadow.

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Later in the evening, Swee Cheng from TMSI gave an enlightening lecture about sponges for the Project Semakau volunteers. His BP book on Singapore sponges will be out soon this month so watch out for it!

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