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Saturday, May 2, 2009

Labour day at Semakau

It was May day and RMBR is here at Semakau again for a public walk.

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It was really a good start with LK spotting about three dolphins swimming very near Semakau's jetty. Unfortunately, I did not bring my x12 zoom camera but still, I am glad that the participants were able to see this amazing scene. This really shows what amazing life we still have in our waters!

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Here is my team mangrove with my friend Mervyn in the green shirt also coming to join as participant.

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My group had several eagle eyed participants and Celina managed to find a spider conch (Lambis lambis) crawling on the seagrass using its sickle shaped and razor edge operulum showed in the picture. Like all true conches, they have a pair of long eye stalks that can peep out of their shells to scan the surroundings.

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Residing on this gigantic anemone (Stichodactyla gigantea) was a anemone shrimp (Periclimenes brevicarpalis) at the centre of this picture. Besides gaining considerable protection from the stinging tentacles of its host, it also have a partially translucent body to break its body outline, making it difficult to spot.

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We saw several upside down jellyfishes (Cassiopea sp.) in the tidal pools. As its name indicates, it normally lie in an upside-down manner to allow its symbiotic algae in its tentacles to photosynthesize.

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This is the top view of a seahorse (Hippocampus comes). They cannot swim fast thus rely a lot on camouflage and simply staying still by hooking themselves to seagrasses or other structures using their prehensile tail.

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The hunter seekers also found a tiny little frog fish. This adorable creature has a pair of frontal fins positioned in a way to allow to walk. Notice that there is an extension from the tip of the head. This is actually a bait to lure fishes towards it.

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A huge ocellated sea cucumber (Stichopus ocellatus) named because of their eye spots on its body which to me looked more like pimples with white pus. eww...

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Last but not least was this star, which happens to be a baby cushion star (Culcita novaeguineae). When they mature to become an adult, they will look very much inflated like a pillow thus earning its common name.

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Last but not least was our traditional group photo with the iconic knobbly seastar (Protoreaster nodosus). Another nice day with great discoveries and an enthusiastic gang of participants!

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