Predawn Trip To Cyrene Reef Again.....

This morning, I made my second predawn trip to Cyrene Reef.

With me this time were some volunteers from Nparks Ubin. It was nice to share with them this reef that we called Chek Jawa of the South as most of the habitats and creatures found here are similar to those in Chek Jawa in the North.

First, we started with the many Knobbly Sea Stars that you can see at Cyrene!




They come in various colours and number of arms!


The team also saw the Pentaceraster Sea Star after much searching for it among the seagrass! It a juvenile and about palm size! This one looks different from the one that KS saw on Sunday. Wow.....this mean that there are more babies around?


We also came across this unknown Sea Star. It looks like a hybrid of a Knobbly and a Pentaceraster.

We saw other "Stars" too! Like.....


The Spiny Sea Star! My first time seeing it at Cyrene!



And a couple of Cushion Stars!




Various Sea Cucumbers! From top-down : Sandfish/Garlic Bread Sea Cucumber, Remarkable Sea Cucumber and Stonefish/White-rumped Sea Cucumber!


Saw at least three Longhorn Cowfish in the tidepools!


A Flathead laid motionlessly among the Seagrass.


Found these Strawberry Sea Slugs on the solitary Fan green seaweeds again.



Other Sea slugs seen include these two nudibranch! The Bohol nudibranch (Discodoris boholiensis) and Black-margined nudibranch (Glossodoris atromarginata)

We also checked out on the bleaching situation.


Lots of the Soft corals are still doing badly!


While the Hard corals fare slightly better. Only a few were bleaching here and there.

Tomorrow it another trip to Cyrene again! But it will be in daylight!

If you like to find out more about Cyrene Reef, visit the "Cyrene Reef Exposed" blog!

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