The Hantu Bloggers 3rd Anniversary Dive.....

Yesterday was The Hantu Bloggers 3rd Anniversary and I joined them for four dives at Pulau Hantu (including my lst night dive in local water!). We did four dive sites and a walk on the island during one of our surface intervals.

First dive, the North Jetty. The nearby reclamation work was going on and we felt the vibration in the water when we were descending. Fortunately, it stopped after a while so that we can have a 'quiet' dive. No pic for my first dive as I had brought along Wildfilms underwater video camera (aka Princess Ursula).



It was my first time handling her underwater and the outcome is....I need more practices!!! Also, she lives up to her name again by giving me some problems in the tuning of exposure. Anyway, the vis was not as good as my last trip here but we still managed to see a few nudibranchs and the Seahorse again.

Our second dive was at the South Jetty. The current here was stronger as it is less sheltered. We were told that this site is a favourite for fishermen to lay their traps and sure enough, the Bubuman, had struck again for we came across this big bubu (about a meter in length) upon descending.



There were a few Butterflyfish and Angelfish trapped but we managed to set them free after cutting (with a pair of scissors) a few holes on the trap. Others also found similar bubus and one of them had a Bamboo Shark trapped which was also set free. So it was another rescue mission accomplished. :O)

Again, I have no other pics for this dive because my batteries went flat after I took this bubu pic. Hmmmm.....I remembered that I had charged the batteries. Or maybe I have put in the wrong set. And guess what?.....my spares were from the same charge. Arghhhhhh!!!!

I was thinking, that's it, no pic for the anniversary dive. Why such thing likes to happen at such special trip? Fortunately, thanks to JuanHui (my dive buddy) who gave me a set of batteries that lasted for the third dive at the Western patch reef. And here are the stuffs;



A Fanshell with its narrow end buried deeply in the sand and its broader edge sticking out. And you can see the membrane around the edge. It was once plentiful in Singapore and was collected as food. However, it is now listed among the threatened animals of Singapore.



False Clown Anemonefish with a Magnificent Sea Anemone. This female (bigger one) was very defensive and charged at our camera several times.

Then, we bumped into this big Reef Cuttlefish.



And lastly from the third dive, the Sea Slugs,



The one that is elongated and with lines is a Thurdilla sp. The Yellow with blue rhinophores fellow is a Tambja sp. First sighting of a Hypselodoris bullocki (pinkish with yellow rhinophores and gills). There's also a pair of Chromodoris lineolata.

After surfacing, the sun was setting. And we have a beautiful sunset!



With that, I prepared for my first night dive in local water at the Western fringing reef. Well.....what can I say? It was not much different from the day dives as the vis was the same but only with the surrounding totally dark. We shone our torch at holes and crevices looking for creatures. We saw a lot of crabs and crinoids (Featherstars) actively out and about having their dinners.

Enjoyed the dives and kudos to Debby and her volunteers for the efforts and commitments to keep these awareness dive trips going. Definitely looking forward to Fourth Anniversary! :O)