Reef Surveys In May 2011.....
The reef survey by BWV ReefFriends started a bit late this year as there were no suitable dive windows in the earlier part of the year. Well.....better late than never, we had the first reef survey on 15th May at Pulau Semakau and the second one, last Saturday at Pulau Jong!
For Pulau Semakau, the site is located between the channel of Pulau Semakau and Terumbu Raya. It was my first time diving there. Thus, I was in for a bit of a surprise that the seabed at this site is at 6-7m only! Haha.....I was thinking that I was either at the reef flat when I was laying the transect tapes or my dive computer was giving me wrong depth. :p
Anyway, the visibility on that day was great! At least 4m!
And some of the creatures that I came across while doing my Line-intercept Transect (LIT) recording along the tapes:
The only nudibranch along the tapes. It's a Black phyllid nudibranch (Phyllidiella nigra)
Ha! I see you! It's a Cuttlefish!
Flatworms!
There were lots of Long-spined Black Sea Urchin around! Thus, one had to keep a lookout for them while swimming along the tapes while recording. If not, it will be nasty pains if you got 'punctured' by one.
A Whip Shrimp!
The False Clown Anemonefish was too shy! Kept hiding from the camera! :p
Looks like an Ocellated Pipefish. Saw two of them that day!
And lastly at Pulau Semakau, saw these Razorfish while I was reeling in the tapes.
For the second survey of the year, it was at Pulau Jong. The dive window was okay but the visibility was not as good as we had at Semakau. It was about 1-2m. Nonetheless, we managed to finish the survey in one dive and had an exploratory second dive.
What did we see? Here they are:
A Blue-spotted Fantail Stingray!
Hard Corals! In different kind of growth forms! Encrusting, column, branching and submassive (Top-down). The Staghorn coral (2nd pic from bottom) had lots of tiny crabs among it, can you see them? Alas, I also saw a small patch of bleaching Anemone coral (bottom pic).
There were a big patch of Anemones along one of my transect tapes!
This Featherstar/Crinoid was 20cm outside the counting range for Invertebrate survey.
The usual tiny Basket Star on a Sea Fan was spotted.
Someone else was on another Sea Fan! It looks like a tiny tiny swimming Anemone!
Someone was on this Sea Whip too. Can you see it?
It's a tiny Squid! Probably a Pygmy Squid!
Phyllid nudibranch big and small.
An Emma nudibranch (Hypselodoris emma).
A Ornate Leaf Slug (Elysia Ornata).
Another kind of Leaf Slug. It looks like a Woolly Leaf Slug (Elysia sp.)
A tiny Flatworm!
Along one transect tape, I saw what looks like a Celebes Sweetlips staying stationary at one spot. So I went closer to try to take a photo, but it swam away. Then, I saw these two Shrimps! Hmmm.....don't think I have seen them before! Ahhh.....they look like some kind of Cleaner Shrimps, so this spot could be a cleaning station! Guess what? After I swam away and went back to that spot, the Sweetlips was there again! But it was still too alert for me to get a picture.
Here's a closer look at one of the shrimps! Looks gravid!
For Pulau Semakau, the site is located between the channel of Pulau Semakau and Terumbu Raya. It was my first time diving there. Thus, I was in for a bit of a surprise that the seabed at this site is at 6-7m only! Haha.....I was thinking that I was either at the reef flat when I was laying the transect tapes or my dive computer was giving me wrong depth. :p
Anyway, the visibility on that day was great! At least 4m!
And some of the creatures that I came across while doing my Line-intercept Transect (LIT) recording along the tapes:
The only nudibranch along the tapes. It's a Black phyllid nudibranch (Phyllidiella nigra)
Ha! I see you! It's a Cuttlefish!
Flatworms!
There were lots of Long-spined Black Sea Urchin around! Thus, one had to keep a lookout for them while swimming along the tapes while recording. If not, it will be nasty pains if you got 'punctured' by one.
A Whip Shrimp!
The False Clown Anemonefish was too shy! Kept hiding from the camera! :p
Looks like an Ocellated Pipefish. Saw two of them that day!
And lastly at Pulau Semakau, saw these Razorfish while I was reeling in the tapes.
For the second survey of the year, it was at Pulau Jong. The dive window was okay but the visibility was not as good as we had at Semakau. It was about 1-2m. Nonetheless, we managed to finish the survey in one dive and had an exploratory second dive.
What did we see? Here they are:
A Blue-spotted Fantail Stingray!
Hard Corals! In different kind of growth forms! Encrusting, column, branching and submassive (Top-down). The Staghorn coral (2nd pic from bottom) had lots of tiny crabs among it, can you see them? Alas, I also saw a small patch of bleaching Anemone coral (bottom pic).
There were a big patch of Anemones along one of my transect tapes!
This Featherstar/Crinoid was 20cm outside the counting range for Invertebrate survey.
The usual tiny Basket Star on a Sea Fan was spotted.
Someone else was on another Sea Fan! It looks like a tiny tiny swimming Anemone!
Someone was on this Sea Whip too. Can you see it?
It's a tiny Squid! Probably a Pygmy Squid!
Phyllid nudibranch big and small.
An Emma nudibranch (Hypselodoris emma).
A Ornate Leaf Slug (Elysia Ornata).
Another kind of Leaf Slug. It looks like a Woolly Leaf Slug (Elysia sp.)
A tiny Flatworm!
Along one transect tape, I saw what looks like a Celebes Sweetlips staying stationary at one spot. So I went closer to try to take a photo, but it swam away. Then, I saw these two Shrimps! Hmmm.....don't think I have seen them before! Ahhh.....they look like some kind of Cleaner Shrimps, so this spot could be a cleaning station! Guess what? After I swam away and went back to that spot, the Sweetlips was there again! But it was still too alert for me to get a picture.
Here's a closer look at one of the shrimps! Looks gravid!
