呆鸟的世界

Teamseagrass Monitoring at Tuas

2008-06-11T21:28:00.004+08:00

On the 06 of Jun 2008, I went to Tuas Teamseagrass monitoring. Had not been on this shore for more than half a year. Seems like there are some changes to this shore. I remembered during the previous monitoring (about Dec 2007), the seagrass (spoon seagrass) were smaller and less dense. This time round they were bigger and seems to occupy a slightly bigger area. However most of these "big and fat" fellows were at the other side of the monitoring side.

There were 11 members for the day and most of them had experience with the monitoring thus I "abandoned" them to do the job while I went towards the beacon to look for interesting stuff to show them after their monitoring. The species of seagrass that one would find in Tuas is the spoon seagrass (Halophilia ovalis). Thus it was pretty easy and most of the members took a very short moment to finish their job and very soon they were joining me at Merawang Beacon.

The first thing that caught the interest of one of the participants was this pinky thing among the sponges. It seems to be a sea cucumber but I am not sure. There were about 3-5 of them each about 10cm long.

There were lots of seafans and hydroids at this shores. The seafans looked like underwater flowers due to their colors and structures. While the participants were amazed by the display of this underwater garden, they were told to avoid contact with the hydroids and not to brush their naked legs by the hydroids as some of them where wearing shorts. This was because hydroids is similar to jellyfish, they belong to the Phylum Cnidaria. They would give you a nasty sting for days if you touch them. Thus we should try to avoid touching them and coming in contact with them by wearing long pants.

Time was short, very soon all of us had to go back to work. As we were proceeding back, afew of us saw a stingray, a number of filefish and this cute little boxfish.

Tuas's shoreline is really interesting and full of wonderful sea creatures. Hope we can protect the shores around us and educate the public that side effect of poaching and how we can preserve what we have now for our future generation.

Phu Kradueng National Park, Thailand (17-22 Mar 2008)

2008-04-03T23:30:00.011+08:00

My first holiday for 2008, Phu Kradueng National Park, Thailand. I took the 0630hr Tiger Airways flight from Singapore to Bangkok. After we reached Bangkok, we roamed aimlessly around Bangkok city till evening where we took our over night bus at Moh Chit station, which departs at about 10pm. Most of us are really tired by this time as we did not sleep the night before and had wander around for the whole day. We could almost sleep while standing. The moment I got into the bus, I tried very hard to sleep. I failed to sleep till about 2-3am. Just as I was about to fall asleep, I was waken by the bus conductor. I thought the bus has stop for a toilet break but NO! We had reached our destination. While I was still in the state of "blurness" wondering what is going on, the bus start to moved on. My friends who had alighted from the bus yelled at the bus driver to stop as I was still in it. Phew! What a shock as the next destination is about 1-2 hours away! As it was about 4am in the morning, the few shop houses are closed and the whole road looked very deserted. With no where to go we just sat at the bus stop and wait for shops to open. I think Thailand people wakes up very early. Around half an hour later a guy from a provision shop nearby approaches us and asked if we are heading for Phu Kradueng National Park. He offered us his shop for wash up and some breakfast. I was damn hungry and ate a plate of rice, curry, a plate of dim sum and some other snacks. I regreted! After the meal, we had to squeeze into a pick up, 12 of us, at the back with all our backpack, for a half hour ride to the National Park. Luckily I did not vomit out my breakfast because my attention was destracted away by the beautiful scenery and sunrise. Finally we reached Phu Kradueng National Park. There are lots and lots of wonderful plants in this park. I was very amazed. I do not know the name of the plants that I saw, just took lots of picture. The 2 plants below are very interesting. They seems to grow out from the ground, and they do not seems to have stem or leave. Anybody know what it is? The most interesting find is this insect below. I do not know what is the name but it does looks very beautiful to me. Just a note on the distance travelled and some interesting notes:

18 Mar 2008

Entrance Gate to Summit Campsite (Distance: 5.4Km Uphill and 4.2Km flat road in blasting hot sun) (Total 9.6 Km in ~7 hours)

19 Mar 2008

Campsite to NokAn cliff to see Sunrise and back (Distance: 3.9Km flat road all the way in a cooling morning) Waterfall trail (Distance: 6.7Km in ~3hours with some up and down hill in a warm day) Waterfall to LomSak Cliff to see sunset (Distance: 9Km in ~3hours with me almost died before I reached LomSak cliff as I have no more water and temperature is hot hot hot during this part of the walk) LomSak Cliff back to campsite (Distance: 10.8Km in ~2hours walking in flat sandy road with a very full bladder that almost burst by the time I reach campsite) (Bath in super icy cold water after a long day walk in the hot hot sun)

20 Mar 2008

Campsite back to main gate (Distance: 9.6Km in ~5hours with me spending lots of time taking photos.

A map I found online which shows where Phu Kradueng National Park is located:

http://www.thailand-guide.org/thailand/loei/map-big.htm

Semakau Public Walk on 23 Feb 2008

2008-02-27T02:07:00.009+08:00

On this day, I was supposed to go for my Bukit Timah training to prepare for my upcoming trekking trip. However I was having serious stomachache so I rotted at home for the whole morning. Luckily the pain was gone by noon and I managed to go for my first guiding in 2008 at Semakau. This trip is quite special as I have Kah Chine partner with me. The group name that I had was "Mangrove". The participants that we had today are 9 students from ITE Clementi. We gave each of them a "Mangrove" badge so that we could easily recognise them as my participants. Below is a picture of the badge.

Since my group was "Mangrove", let's talk about mangrove. During the construction of Semakau Landfill, some of the mangrove were destroyed. However the authority replanted back the amount of mangrove that were destroyed. In total 13.6 hectares of mangrove were planted. When we travelled from the visitor centre to the southern tip of Semakau Landfill, we could see the replanted mangrove. To differentiate the replanted ones from the original ones is quite easy. The replanted ones had quite an even height and they look very similar. The original ones have different height and there were different species of mangrove trees.

As seen from the picture in the badge, the mangrove tree has a "special look". It looks quite different from most of the trees that we can find along the road or in the forest. The tree trunk seems to be "held up" in the air by some weird looking roots. Why is this so? To understand this, let's look at where we can find mangrove tree. Mangrove tree can be found along the muddy seashore. To survive in this habitat where it is often immersed in sea water during high tide and having to "stand" in soft mud, the mangrove has evolved some clever solutions. (1) Have roots that can breathe from the air to obtain oxygen since there is not much oxygen in mud (anaerobic substrate). (2) Spread out your legs.. oppss .. roots to get a better balance so you don't fall easily when pushed over by the waves from the sea or sink into the soft mud. Thus you get the stilt roots that you see from the mangrove tree shown in the badge. Other survival skill that mangrove tree has are secreting excess salt or filtering salt from the sea water.

I feel that the mangrove tree is like a gentle giant providing protection to all the fishes, crab,bird and even human beings. Do you know that during the 2004 December Tsumani,villages in Thailand and Sri Lanka with mangrove forests along the coast were spared the full power of the disaster. The mangrove trees absorbed much of the tsunami’s force thus the impact on the villages were very much reduced. Do appreciate mangrove tree. Let us not destroy this gentle giant and help to protect it from the waves of destruction just like how it can protect us from the waves of Tsumani.

Semakau Exploratory Walk on 9th Feb 2008

2008-02-12T01:57:00.015+08:00

On the 9th of Feb 2008, I went on an Exploratory walk to Semakau Landfill with the RMBR guides and trainees. Semakau landfill is Singapore only landfill for our waste disposal. Waste that we throw are collected and incinerated into ash. After this process the ash plus construction debris are collected and dumped at Semakau Landfill.

Semakau Landfill is situated among the Southern Islands of Singapore. Today we took a 30minutes boat from Marina South Pier. Along the way, we pass by Sentosa and saw a few of the Southern Islands such as Lazarus Island, Sisters Islands, Pulau Bukom and Pulau Jong. Once we reached our destination, the first thing that we could see was the signboard above that showed the map of Semakau Landfill. This place was made up by joining 2 islands, Pulau Sakeng and Pulau Semakau with a 7Km perimeter rock bund. The completed landfill covers an area of 350ha, with a capacity of 63 million m3 and is targeted to meet Singapore's need till 2040.

After a brief introduction to Semakau Landfill, everyone started to get prepared for the intertidal walk. To reach the intertidal area, we need to walk through a patch of the forest. This forest is famous for its mosquitoe. I was covered from head to toe to fingers except for my face, yet my face was terribly bitten by the mosquitoes. Once we exit from the forest we were greeted by the wonderful intertidal area.

One of the first few things that greeted us were the sponges. There were alot of them and they comes in different forms and colours. Do you know that sponges are animal? They are filter-feeding animals. Thus they are mentioned as Nature's vacuum cleaners. If you look carefully at sponges, you will find lots of holes in it. Normally the holes come in 2 distinct sizes, big and small. The small holes are where food-laden waters are sucked in and the big holes are the exit. Once the water reaches the chamber or holes in the sponges, the plankton and organic materials in the water will be filtered and eaten by the cells of the sponge. Sometimes you will see other creatures living in the sponge such as the picture (Last sponge picture on the right) shown below. This is because they are benefiting from the access to plankton-rich currents passing in the sponge.

Next we saw the eggs of the spiral melongena (Pugilina cochlidium). Just as I was wondering where is the mother, I saw it just a few steps away. The spiral melongena is often covered with tiny hairs that trap camouflaging sediment. Thus it is often well camouflaged. Once died, the hairs will drop off to reveal an orange shell. Do you know that the favourite food of the spiral melongena is barnacles.

Soon we reached the seagrass lagoon. Semakau has the biggest seagrass lagoon in Singapore. Seagrasses are the only group of flowering plants that can live underwater. They are often found growing in sandy or muddy substrates. Currently 11 of of about 60 species of seagrasses are found in Singapore. Seagrasses are important as they provide food and shelter to many marine organisims. They also helped to stabilise coastal sediments and is a nursery ground for many marine creatures. Picture on the top right showed a Tape seagrass fruit, bottom left is the Tape seagrass which dominant the seagrass lagoon in Semakau and bottom right showed the Spoon Seagrass.

Quite often when you see seagrass you will also find some algae. Algae do not have the same structure as seagrass. They do not have true roots or veins to absorp water. They absorp nutrients directly from the cells. Algae also do not have fruits and flowers like seagrasses. Thus do not mistake an algae with a seagrass. Algae can be divided into 4 divisions based on colours, which are red, brown, green and blue-green. Showned below from top left to right: Sargassum sp., Funnelweed or Mermaid Fan (Padina sp.), Fan seaweed (Avrainvillea sp.) and Coin seaweed (Halimeda sp.)

There are many crabs on our shore. One that you can find quite often is the hermit crab. Hermit crab (under the group anomurans) differs from true crab because they have a long and soft abdomen, which is the tail section. True crab (under the group brachyurans) on the other hand lack of this obvious tail section. As this tail section is soft and thus vulnerable, the hermit crab has to find a way to protect it. They have cleverly made use of empty shells left behind by dead snails. They tucked the tail into the shells and get the protection from it. Once the hermit has grown bigger, it will look for new ones. Sometimes you might see 2 of them fighting for one shell. Thus do not bring any empty shell home or away from the shore, they are very important to the hermit crab. Do not let them run around nake on the beach.

Other crab that you might find include the Hairy Crab or Teddy Bear Crab (Pilumnus vespertilio) (Top left). As the name suggest, this fellow is quite "hairy". It has a coat of silky hair all over its body and even its limbs. This is a good way of camouflage for protection. Another good way to protect yourself is to carry poison with you. This can be seen in the Red Egg Crab (Atergatis integerrimus) (Bottom left). Why do I say "seen". This is because animals that are poisonous would display it out by being beautifully coloured as seen in the red egg crab, having a nice red coloured carapace. Today I also saw an unknown crab (Bottom right). It is also one that is good at camougflage because the colour blends in very well with the surrounding.

Another crab that was I was today, for the first time, is the Horned Ghost Crab (Ocypode ceratophthalmus). Ghost crab normally can be seen during night time. It is normally found at the higher part of the shore (supralittoral zone), which is normally not submerged in sea water. During day time, if you see lots of holes at the shore, it could be home of the crab. This is because they like to retreat themselves in the hole to escape from the hot sun.

One commanly seen creature at Semakau is the Common Seastar (Archaster typicus). Today we lots of them after we crossed the seagrass lagoon. Sometimes you will see 2 of them on top of each other. This is because they are getting ready to mate. As fertilisation is external, they have to get as close as possible to each other so that the eggs and sperm can have a higher chances of fertilisation. Thus this is what you get to see. The one on the top, which is smaller, is the male while the bottom is the female.

Common seastars are often buried under the sand. If you want to find them, look out for the star shape on the surface. There may be times you might not notice that they are under the sand thus becareful where you step when you are at the shore.

Not too far away from the common seastar is a Noble Volute (Volute nobilis) lying eggs (Bottom right)! Noble volute used to be common but due to lost of habitat, over collection for their beautiful shell and human consumption, they have now become rather rare. To see one lying eggs is thus a wonderful sight. Isn't the creature being alive much more beautiful than it's empty shell? So please do not buy shell as ornaments. To be able to see a live one is much more meaningful and the sight is much more magnificent. Moreover the empty shell is more important to the hermit crab as a home to them rather than an empty shell to human being as a display.

It is said that the most intelligent invertebrates you can find in the sea is the Octopus. I agreed with it after I had seen a documentary on Octopus. They are really good "actor". The documentary showed how the octopus can change their body into many different kind of shape to disguise themselves as other animals in order to "cheat" their predators. It also showed how they can change their colours through the control of chromatophores to blend themselves with the surrounding. Today I witness this "stunt" when I saw a few octopus at Semakau. They really changed their colours at the speed of lightning and blend very well with the surrounding. One of the wonderful way to protect yourself, learn to camouflage and blend with the surrounding.

If you do not know how to camouflage yourself to escape from your enemies, you must have other methods to protect yourself. One good way is having some poison to kill your enemies should they try to get close to you and eat you up. Another good reason is you can also use the poison to kill other creatures for food. There is a group of animals you can find in the sea that possess this ability. They are the animals from the Phylum Cnidaria. All of them possess stinging cells that can kill a prey. Sea anemones as shown below is one of the animals that is under the Phylum Cnidaria. They have stinging cells in their long tentacles. Should any prey bumps into them, they will get stung. Once the prey becomes paralysed, they will be eaten up by the sea anemones.

Another fellow that contain poisons in it is the Chromodoris lineola (bottom left). It is a sea slug that belong to a group of molluscs known as nudibranchs. Nudibranchs means nake gills, this can be seen from the picture below. It is the puffy flowery looking thing located at the top end of the nudibranch. The poison in nudibranch is obtained from the food that it eats, sponges. The stinging cells in the sponge is stored in the nudibranch after it is consumed by its predator.

The picture on the bottom right is not a nudibranch but a flatworm. To differentiate between them, look out for the puffy flowery looking gill. Flatworm is also much flatter, usually less than 1mm thick. Howevery flatworm is similar to nudibranch. It also possess poison in them like the nudibranch.

Have you ever wonder sea cucumber is a plant or an animal? It is an animal. Sea cucumbers are echinoderms. Animals that are under the Phylum Echinodermata are symmetrical along the five axes and they have tube feet and spines. Other creatures under this Phylum are sea stars, brittle stars, sea urchins and sand dollars. Shown below are Sandfish Sea Cucumber (Holothuria scabra)(top left), Thorny Sea Cucumber (Stichopus sp.)(top right) and Ocellated Sea Cucumber (Stichopus ocellatus)(2nd left).

This trip is really terrific. Not only did we see a noble volute laying eggs, we also saw a puffer fish (2nd right). Puffer Fish flesh is a delicacy for the Japanese. However you need to be extremely careful when handling the fish. The liver and gonads contain highly toxic toxin that can kill a man. Thus a chef must be extremely careful when he is cleaning the fish. Else the patron will be having his last meal and dies.

As we were about to end our trip, a Spider Conch (Lambis lambis) (bottom left) and an unknown fish (bottom right) were found along the way. I find that the Spider Conch is one of the cutest creatures that I have seen at Semakau. However it is also facing the same fate as the noble volute. Due to lost of habitat and over collection of its shell and human consumption, it is now rather rare in Singapore.

Some of the corals that you can find in Semakau are the Staghorn Coral (Acropora sp.)(top left and right), Mushroom Coral (2nd left and right, and 3rd left) and the Soft Coral (3rd right).

References:

Ria Tan and Alan Yeo. 2003. Chek Jawa Guidebook. 219pp.

Dr Gerald R Allen & Roger Steene. 2003. Indo-Pacific Coral Reef Field Guide. 378pp.

Peter K.L. Ng, Shirley S.L.Lim, Wang Luan-Keng & Leo W.H. Tan. 2007. Private Lives An Expose Of Singapore's Shores. 212pp.

Seagrasswatch website: http://www.seagrasswatch.org/Singapore.html

05 Jan 2008

2008-01-05T08:58:00.000+08:00

The first Saturday of 2008... I brought Dai Jiao out for a walk. The first subject that attracted our attention was this plant. It is a Macaranga sp. On this plant you can find quite a lot of ants. This is because the ants live in the hollow stem of the plant. The relationship between the plant and the ant is a win-win situation. The plant gives the ant a home while the ant will protect the plant from herbivores.

During this walk I also saw quite a number of interesting stuffs.

Pleasing Fungus Beetle? I saw quite a number of them feeding on some fungus except for this fellow who is "strolling" around a leaf.

One of the most interesting find for the day was the pitcher plants. Pitcher plants are carnivorous plants, which means they obtain their nutrients by "eating" animals such as insects. The structure of the leaf is like a "cup". In it is a liquid that is used to drown the victim. The victim will be dissolved into mineral rich solution for the plant to absorb. These plants are usually found in mineral poor soil. Thus you might not find other plants growing around it.

This is a very naughty butterfly. It is a Graphium sp. or Swallow Tail Butterfly. It was moving up and down and never stopped for long, wings in constant vibration. I waited for quite a while before it finally "pose" for this shot.

A tiny whiny St. Andrew Cross! The body is about 1-2mm long. Spider has 8 legs. For this species it's 8 legs are paired up and looked like a cross, which is why it has the name St. Andrew Cross.