ReefFriends Reef Survey Dive @ Pulau Semakau Instead.....
Pulau Jong was originally scheduled for today's reef survey dive. But as heavy rain started to pour when we departed, we decided to switch to Pulau Semakau. This was done so for our safety as diving Pulau Jong in the rain and choppy water might be a bit tricky for a small team.
So off we go to the west side of Pulau Semakau. And I was back to this side of the island for the consecutive days. Yesterday, I was doing a guided walk here!
Once we have allocated the tasks, off we jumped into the warm water to escape from the cold wind that was blowing constantly. I started recording the benthic stuffs for the deep transect as KS and KJ laid out the transect tapes. After finishing tape 1,2 and 3 (KS will do tape 4 and 5), I swam up to help Jeff to record the tape 1 benthic stuffs for the shallow.
As the Sargassum are back in season, it was a bit difficult to maneuver through them to record the reading. Certain time, my fins will entangle with a bunch of Sargassum and I was pulled back when I was swimming forward. But I guessed it's better that it was just seaweed that was pulling me instead of "other thing" since it is still the Hungry Ghost month. :p
I did not take any photo in the first dive as I brought down a camera with flat batteries! But managed to take some in the 2nd dive when I was doing the invertebrates survey at the shallow.
The hard corals at the deeper end (around 6-7m) fair much better to those at the shallow in term of bleaching percentage. The Ringed plate corals are the worst hit with lots of them bleaching in large number at the shallow end! The soft corals are also bleaching in large mass at the shallow too!
Other than that, most corals are doing pretty well.....
such as this Brain coral.
A Cuttlefish had laid some eggs in between the crevices of a partially bleached Carnation coral.
Recorded about 10 Long-spined Black Sea Urchin at the shallow.
Not many Featherstar / Crinoid was seen.....
Quite a number of Fanworms were seen. But this is not an invertebrate that we need to record.
Saw a few of these Pimply phyllid nudibranch (Phyllidiella pustulosa).
Came across a bunch of Skeleton Shrimps on a Hydroid while fighting against the current. Haha.....and I was not the only one doing it!
So was this little Skeleton Shrimp.
So off we go to the west side of Pulau Semakau. And I was back to this side of the island for the consecutive days. Yesterday, I was doing a guided walk here!
Once we have allocated the tasks, off we jumped into the warm water to escape from the cold wind that was blowing constantly. I started recording the benthic stuffs for the deep transect as KS and KJ laid out the transect tapes. After finishing tape 1,2 and 3 (KS will do tape 4 and 5), I swam up to help Jeff to record the tape 1 benthic stuffs for the shallow.
As the Sargassum are back in season, it was a bit difficult to maneuver through them to record the reading. Certain time, my fins will entangle with a bunch of Sargassum and I was pulled back when I was swimming forward. But I guessed it's better that it was just seaweed that was pulling me instead of "other thing" since it is still the Hungry Ghost month. :p
I did not take any photo in the first dive as I brought down a camera with flat batteries! But managed to take some in the 2nd dive when I was doing the invertebrates survey at the shallow.
The hard corals at the deeper end (around 6-7m) fair much better to those at the shallow in term of bleaching percentage. The Ringed plate corals are the worst hit with lots of them bleaching in large number at the shallow end! The soft corals are also bleaching in large mass at the shallow too!
Other than that, most corals are doing pretty well.....
such as this Brain coral.
A Cuttlefish had laid some eggs in between the crevices of a partially bleached Carnation coral.
Recorded about 10 Long-spined Black Sea Urchin at the shallow.
Not many Featherstar / Crinoid was seen.....
Quite a number of Fanworms were seen. But this is not an invertebrate that we need to record.
Saw a few of these Pimply phyllid nudibranch (Phyllidiella pustulosa).
Came across a bunch of Skeleton Shrimps on a Hydroid while fighting against the current. Haha.....and I was not the only one doing it!
So was this little Skeleton Shrimp.
