Musings of a barefoot traveller

Kusu110206_Seawhip_shrimp02_web Originally uploaded by diploastrea . My current fave shot! Chased the bugger around until it stayed in a good position! Such critters are the reason I love diving Kusu so much.

It was my first and last look at Terumbu Bayan. A pretty little patch reef, now buried and gone forever under a pile of sand and rocks, soon to be a billion-dollar generating petrochemical hub. Before my trip, there were already quite a few marine life relocation activities conducted, and numerous hard coral colonies were translocated. Went with RMBR on a salvage operation to retrieve as many specimens as we could for preservation. Early morning at Terumbu Bayan The video team ready to go Sunrise over Terumbu Bayan, smack in the heart of petrol-land The coral relocation team certainly did an efficient job Jani and I came across a huge pile of Acropora rubble. Wonder where it came from? Some critters that we saw: A nice fat Glossodoris . Found out later that it secretes noxious chemicals! Really cool flatworm This ribbon eel gave us a good chase! Now we know why they call it 'spring' tide... Sorting specimens on board Though it was fun to go out and catch stuff, I can't ...

Was browsing through my friend's online photo album today, and was absolutely horrified by the carnage in the photos of Raffles Lighthouse!! It looked as though a boat had rammed into the fringing coral reef there, smashing hard coral colonies to pieces and overturning the boulder corals. Here are some of her photos: Smashed up Pavona colony Overturned Porites coral boulder, and a gap on the reef flat A smash and run? Why am I so upset? I have dived frequently at Raffles Lighthouse from 2000, it was one of my study sites and a survey site for the Blue Water Volunteers . RL is (or was) a really special place, with one of the highest percentages of coral cover in Singapore, and a wide variety of hard coral species, including staghorn coral ( Acropora spp.), which is otherwise rarely seen in Singapore. The reefs of RL could also be important sources of larvae to replenish the other reefs, as there is a mass coral-spawning event happening there in March/April every year. Not to me...

It never rains but it pour eh? Since I have time today, thought I'll blog about the ReefFriends Xplore! training dives for this month as well, which I went along for as a trainer. Blue Water Volunteers , together with the Hantu Bloggers and Gill Divers have organised a programme to train volunteers to be nature dive guides! Not that I'm an expert dive guide, but at least I know where some stuff are on our reefs, heheh... As usual, didn't have much chance to flex the camera finger muscles while 'working', but managed to get these shots from Kusu and Hantu, while posing as a 'potential' dive participant being guided... Ze Seawhip Goby! Taken on the fly, so no arty black backdrop. Noticed that my 'dive guides' tend to leave me behind while I'm taking photos :( Can't be that much of a slowpoke right? Or maybe they know that I can probably find them again (which is true, but still??!) Oooooh! Mating nudi's! Not only are they nudist exhi...

Well, no photographs from Africa yet...but there're nice underwater shots of Kusu and Hantu! Enjoy... The reef crest of Kusu is studded with anemones. Look closer, and you might spot an anemonefish.. Acropora crab! The white allied cowrie is getting to be my favourite! A sweet yellow nudi! Seafans of Kusu The Chinese Demoiselles at 9m The featherstars were out in full force today! Moving over to Hantu... We almost missed this pipefish...Only saw the orange spots when I enlarged the photo. A phyllid and sap-sucker slug at Pulau Hantu The shrimp goby without its shrimp (it's back in the hole) Sigh...a sad sight....Overturned corals close to the reef crest. Boat collision?

Spent almost one month in East Africa, and there're so many photos to look through, edit, select and put up that it's very likely that it won't happen . Back to the real world, and what's in store for me? Well, I'm doing some research writing for a local marine life documentary, tight deadlines, uncooperative weather, not so great vis and all that. But I must say, was severely impressed by Jim's footage of Pulau Hantu, shot on Sunday. The colours were so vivid! The lines so sharp! It looked much better on tape than in real life! Hah!

'Twas a nice and sunny day! Dragged myself out of bed at 6.45am and mumbled that the diving better be worth it.... Had not breathed underwater for yonks, hope I could still hover with some decency, heheh. The shallow transect at Sisters' had enough patches of coralline algae, turf and hard corals to give a LIT benthic surveyor nightmares. As usual, I didn't have much time to look around and take photos, but on the way back from laying 2 tapes, we managed to squeeze in some stuff: Gorgeous huge seafan at 7m depth. Next time we have to search for pygmy seahorses! 3 of these tiny fella were crawling around the shallow transect tape. So cute! Abby saw them on the other survey site at Sisters' Laut too! And one of the highlights of the dive: Jani spotted this pregnant male seahorse! Pretty shy dude, went to hide in a crevice. It was an excellent trip! Decent visibility, efficient movement of volunteers, and we completed the survey in 2.5 hours, which must be a Reef Friend...

Made myself a mushroom and onion omelette, stuffed it full of cheese, and garnished with a sprinkle of chopped parsley! YUM!

Few things in life are better than a picnic by the water's edge, watching the sunset over the treetops with good friends, and a good assortment of snacks on hand. :)

Ahhhh...the joys of diving in 3.5m vis.....No need to struggle with the buoy, no need to 'touch and feel' our way along the reef crest, no fear of hitting my face on an angle iron/anemone/bunch of hydroids/poky mussid.... If only everyday could be like this ;) Check out the blue water! Allied cowrie!! Wow! An Alveopora colony! They're not easy to find, normally we only see Goniopora. Check out the tentacles- 12 instead of 24! Nice fishies like the Copperbanded Butterflyfish The carpet eel blenny made an appearance too Cute flatworm! Another flatworm Ginormous swimming flatworm Tiny little phyllid nudibranch Drupella snails happily munching away on the Oxypora coral (The skeleton had holes- Hah!) And saving the best for last, guess what we came across on the nubbins tray while cleaning? Guess who's hiding among the nubbins? A closer look at the Tiger Tailed Seahorse So, think Singapore's marine life deserves some legal protection? You can read comments on setting ...