Cryptic Rock Star

I haven't been blogging for a long time. Sorry about that. I guess I shall blog something at least once a month.

Today shall blog on a little seastar I saw on my last trip to Pulau Semakau.


Cryptic Rock Star (Cryptasterina sp.)
Though it has been sighted many times on Semakau, I never seen it once(or maybe i have, but i didn't realise it. Ha.). Cryptic Rock Star is the common name. It belongs to the phylum of Echinodermata and family of Asternidae. Its species is hard to differentiate just by visual looking. It usually grow up to 3 to 4 cm long. Their arms are not long, almost like pentagon shape. Its colour make it difficult to spot as it camouflages very well among rocks and sands. Its favourite living habitat is under rock (and this is how i found them). It feeds on algae and small animals found on the surface of the rock. Seastars usually fertilize externally by releasing eggs and sperms into the water and produce swimming, bilaterally symmetrical larva. However it seems different for Cryptasterina hystera(read up more).


References:
http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/echinodermata/asteroidea/cryptasterina.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0861002.html

Project Semakau: 4th Trip - Transect Studies

Today woke up very early in the morning and took a cab down to Marina South Pier. Along the way, I kept seeing lightnings brightening up the sky. And I know was a bad bad sign. It rained when we were on the ferry to Pulau Semakau. Kindly, the rain stopped when we arrived. However there were still thick dark cummulonimbus clouds around.




I guess the South-west monsoon was doing the job, helping us to blow away the clouds. This give us a lot of hope that the weather would be good today. There's no bus today to bring us to the intertidal site. So we had to walk quite long distance. Lucky the weather is cooling. I enjoyed it very much as I could look out for more things.


Finally the real job had to get started. It was my first time doing transect survey and I'm posted to do the seagrass transect... which I don't really like because I don't know how to differentiate between seagrass. Haha. Thanks to Samuel and Crystal who guided me along. We completed our transect quite fast as our region was quite bare. I'm glad that I had gained quite a knowledge on seagrass after the transect survey. I didn't take photos on seagrass today probably the next time then I will do it. Let's see my 'harvest' today...

Sunrise at Semakau

A Half Rainbow that brighten up our day!

Intertidal area - Super bright Day!

Am I seeing the formation of a coral... (edited: is zoanthids)

Knobby Sea Star, the icon of our project. Seems that it has one shorter arm.

Dragonfish Sea cucumber. camouflage very well between the rubbles.

Carpet Anemone. Excited!

Exposing shore when we left.

Project Semakau: my 3rd trip to Semakau.

This time was slightly different from my past two trips to Semakau. I had to wake up early morning to catch the morning tide. Today, we reached the intertidal area of Semakau around 9am. The sun was shining bright. Roy and I were grouped together and began our hunt for interesting creatures. We started from the mangrove area and saw a lot of shells... Shells shells shells... I don't like to see so many shells because I'm not really good at identifying them.
Just 30mins of our 'hunting', strong wind followed by rain and lightnings prevent us from continuing any further due to safety issue. It was quite a disappointment for everyone that woke up early morning and hope to 'harvest' something back. So well... today roy and I 'harvested' only shells and crabs... so sad..! we didn't even make it to the seagrass area.

So well, today harvest... ( forgive me if i state the species wrongly)

Clypeomonus zonata

Telescope Creeper Shell (Telescopium telescopium)

Porcelain or Orange fiddler crab (Uca species)

(Edited: Nerita Sp.)

Underside of the above. Trapdoor is rough and have tiny bumps.

I don't know what this called but it looks like the shells we eat at seafood center.

This big crab is hiding inside the mangrove tree. I can't really see the dorsal part of the crab...so well...identity unknown to me. haha. (edited: Spotted Belly Crab)

Gong Gong ( Laevistrombus canarium)

The wide field at Pulau Semakau

Discovery at Semakau

This sem, thru the sch Earthlink, i get to know about this project called Project Semakau. I joined as a volunteer and started to learn more about this island and the marine life. This is a 3 years project that is launched by the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, NUS. The aim of this project is to collect data on biodiversity of Pulau Semakau and enhance awareness of conservation in Singapore shores. This project is offically launched on 14 Nov 2008. For more infomation, you may go to the Project Semakau website.

Furthermore, joining Project Semakau let me aware of what we can find in S'pore water. Before this, I always thought starfish or coral will not be able to see in S'pore shore. But NOW...
let's start with my first visit to Pulau Semakau, a southern island in S'pore. A small intro abt this island, it's the only offshore landfill in Sg. Even though is a landfill island, it has a high diversity of life over the small area.

Semakau Landfill.

Landfill from the mainland will be transported by ship to this place.

Lonely Bakau tree

Common sea star (Archaster typicus)

Gong Gong

Ocellated Sea cucumber and Sandfish Sea Cucumber. They are so big and fat.

The moon crab. They are so special...


Another fav crab... the hairy crab...it just looks so cute.


Top anemone, Bottom Noble Volute, Right Juvenile Squid.

Seen alot more new species that i never seen before...