Sunday, April 29, 2007

It's A Slug Day And More.....

for this morning Pulau Hantu's North Jetty dives. Fantastic Vis and Stuffs!!!

Check it out! The Vis!!! We were at about 13m depth and the vis was like at least 6-8m!


That's Wai, my dive buddy and Ming Sheng is our volunteer dive guide today.

And here's the FANTASTIC Stuffs that we saw:

The Nudibranchs!!! Lots of them!!!



There's chromodoris fidelis (red and white with Black rhinophores), phyllidia ocellata (yellowish with white bumps), bornella sp. (white body with red patterns and projections), a tiny dermatobranchus sp (white body with some brown dots and brown rhinophores), jorunna funebris (white body with black polka-dots), chromodoris lineolata (brownish with black lines), glossodoris atromarginata (yellow one with black margin) and cuthona sibogae (purple body with red and orangeish projections).

Think that's all the Nudibranchs that we have seen today? Then you are wrong. :OP

Here's a first sighting of this chromodoris species in our water for me today. It's chromodoris coi. The last time that I have seen this species was during my open water dives in Malaysia.



Also, I finally had my wish granted today! After missing out this nudibranch, ceratosoma gracillimum , during my previous two dives at North Jetty, I finally saw it! Not one but THREE(I think)!!!




I was going like The Count from Sesame Street like this; "One ceratosoma, AHHAHAHAHA! Two ceratosoma, AHHAHAHAHA! Three AHHAHAHAHA!" Well.....with the exception of thunder roaring overhead and lightning flashing of course. :OP

Okay, that's all for Slugs.

So, what other stuffs we saw?

Let's see.....There's two Gorgonian shrimps that Ming Sheng had spotted for us. A first sighting for me again!




He also spotted this Urchin Clingfish (sorry, pic abit bad cos very hard to focus. But the fish is the one that's with white and black strips among the urchin's white spines). Yet another first sighting! See Wai's pic for a clearer shot and other wonderful stuffs.



Next, it's the Flatworms.



And these: Octopus, Crinoid, Batfish, Cushion Seastar and a Red Swimming crab.



And UNFORTUNATELY (or is it fortunately?), we saw this too.



Yes, that's a PLASTIC BAG you are seeing. It was floating in the water and we all know how it got there. Can you imagine the consequences if it was a turtle (and yes, we have turtle in our water!!!) and not us that had seen it first? The turtle might think that it is a jellyfish and eat it.

Sighhhhh.....

And oh ya, Wai mentioned that she saw something with white spots moving behind a Filefish among the crevices during our first dive. And at that time, I thought that she was pointing the Filefish to me and I took a pic. Guess what? When I was processing the pic, I saw this:



It's a fish, black with white spots on the head. Mmm.....could it be a Comet?

8 Comments:

Blogger juanicths said...

wah~~~ wish I had a regular pay so can go leisure every month or so~~~

anyways, took some time but my blog posts on the coral spawning and the anniversary dive are up..do let me know if you want any of the photos on the collages that I put up ^^

http://ashira.blogspot.com/2007/04/sex-in-sea.html
http://ashira.blogspot.com/2007/03/hantu-3rd-anniversary-dives.html

Happy diving and hope to see you soon~~

April 30, 2007 7:23 AM  
Blogger Ria Tan said...

WOW! Looks like you had a slug-ful day! Wonderful. Thanks for sharing all the stories and photos.

April 30, 2007 8:54 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hey there...
very lovely shots...great viz from your shots...dslr or point and shoot?

April 30, 2007 8:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks.:O)

They were taken using a P&S - Canon Powershot A540.

April 30, 2007 9:17 PM  
Blogger Debby Ng said...

Wow... what a dive to miss! Looks like you guys saw some great stuff and I'm glad you decided to bring your stills camera out for this dive!

Yup, the last image looks like a Comet to me. Good spot! We've seen them a few times ard the Jetty.

April 30, 2007 10:59 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wah Slug Fest at Hantu! What awesome finds! How I envy that you always possess such sharp vision for small critters and wonderful luck each... Come to think of it, I never really buddied u although we've been on trips together!Next time must chop u first and Hope to be diving with you really soon! Check out my finds on the anniversary dive too... I still in the midst of posting them up... hee got too occupied with work no time..already a month late..opps

May 05, 2007 6:19 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Wyatt, only a few of the critters were spotted by moi lah. The rests were by MS and Wai.

Yaya....I have seen your posts on the anniversary dive. Hee....still waiting for part four and hope to see it soon.:O)

May 05, 2007 5:38 PM  
Blogger Jeffrey said...

It's a Comet ... as far as I know, it's only been spotted at Hantu. Of course, it being quite a cryptic creature, and the other spots not being visited as often, it could occur all over Singapore's reefs.

Nice photos - wish I could have been there!

Jeff

May 06, 2007 7:33 AM  

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