justin dive adventures

Project or environment disaster?

2009-11-02T03:46:00.000-08:00

Recently, on a paticular long weekend, one dive-centre embarked on a project, putting structure right outside the cove of Telok Teluran off Pulau Aur. Details of the structure is as follows...

The structure was about 8m by 2m made up of metal pickets, metal strings, hola loops and 1.5L water bottles (Refer to picture below) and was supposed to be a training circuit for a speciality module in diving.
However, there were some questionable issues to be addressed about this project.

First, the materials used for the structure were definately harmful to the environment. Mainly, the paintworks of the metal pickets will react with the seawater causing it to peel off. Such fragments will inevitably be toxic when consumed by any marine creatures. To make it worst, PLASTIC BOTTLES and HOLA HOOPS are well-known trash in the marine environment. Hence, when the structure breaks apart, it will definitely contribute to the millions of tonnes of trash already floating in the oceans.

Secondly, this stucture was doubtlessly not sturdy enough to withstand the forces of nature, for example, underwater currents, corrosive nature of seawater. This was because the structures were merely tied together and not well cemented to each other. Also, the WATER BOTTLES were tied to the handle could easily be detached. Hence, not undermining the FORCES OF NATURE, this structure would indeed not endure.

However, sources had it that the organisers claimed that this structure was located in a sheltered area. This point can easily be disputed with the fact that is there really an area underwater which is free from the works of nature.

Therefore, supplied with sufficient data from various sources, the marine park authorities of Malaysia deployed their craft 2 weeks later to search and remove the structure. Below is the rough location of the structure.

Hence, on a Saturday morning, an undislosed number of divers plunge off the marine park's speedboat to search for the structure and found it at depth of 18m.

To our surprise, the structure was already DISINTEGRATED, leaving only the metal frame on the seabed. To top it up, it is located extremely close to the reef (refer to the picture below). Also THE STRUCTURE WAS NOT LOCATED AT THE SHELTERED REGION OF THE COVE!

What were left are the metal strings tied to the metal frame.

Painworks were already starting to peel off.
The hola-hoops and plastic bottles were not found in the near vicinity of the structure. Probably, it was swept far away by the current, which may cause damage to the marine environment somewhere else.

As such, we planned to remove the structure immediately before this structure disintegrate further. Thus, with our limited manpower, and careful planning and organisation, we managed to dismantle and remove the structure from the seabead within 45mins, while preventing any damage to the surrounding reefs.

As such, there are a few questions to be addressed.

Note:
Please note that this is a professional entry... Comments are definitely welcomed... But I would appreciate if anyone who comments refrain from any personal attacks.... Also, it will be good to identify yourself when commenting...

MAN OVERBOARD!!

2009-09-21T08:34:00.000-07:00

28th August 2009... Justin was 25 years old 2 months...

He was on he way on a boat in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT TO TIOMAN...

He was somewhat involved with strings of briefings till he was extremely tired.. And he decided to walk towards the bow(front) to retire for the night..

With water bottle on one hand and his wind breaker on the other, he walked along the side of the boat without holding on to the railing.. Probably due to his overcomplacency...

Suddenly, the boat rocked slightly. Due to the slow reaction time from the lack of sleep. Justin suddenly found himself floating on the water! Seeing the boat cruised past him..

Just as the boat was about to pass him completely, a realisation suddenly set in that he was overboard. However, panic was not present because of his lack of sleep. Instead, he just shout twice. Fortunately, one of the crew on board heard the distress call, which stunted him.. Upon realising the situation, he immediately called out to the boatman to stop the boat.

The boat came to a halt about 100m away from Justin.

At this point in time, eveyone on board were panicking. Spot light was on and small torchs started to shine from the boat. Everyone was awaken by the incident. None expected such to happen. Nevertheless, a real case has occured. Man was indeed overboard!! Almost everyone were frantically trying to locate Justin in the dark waters.

On Justin's side, thinking that he was already spotted by the people on board because the boat was moving towards him, he got busy to create floatation device for himself. He used his 1/4 filled water bottle as a float while zipping up his wind-breaker to convert into a float. Since, this was not an easy fleat, he was entirely oblivious of the fact that he was not seen by those on-board yet. It was only after he complete his floatation device that he shouted to those on board again. Only after that was he spotted.

Thus, the boat locked on to him and approached towards him. He was subsequently rescued, but with heavy losses in terms of material processions.

After the rescue, and everyone on board accounted for, the boat continued its journey to Tioman with everyone fully awake, recovering from the trama of man-overboard....

Irony:
Real man-overboard situation on a trip where rescue couse was ongoing.. Really woke everyone up...

Valuables loss for Justin:
Wallet fully soaked
Passport crumpled
Handphone flooded till unrevivable
Car romote alarm key damaged

Really expensive loss......

Waves like petals of flowers

2009-08-26T08:08:00.000-07:00

On the 7th day of August in the year of the LORD 2009, a group of 16 divers departed from Singapore in search for adventures underwater around the waters of the sunny island of Pulau Redang. The following are abstracts from the diary of one of the crew on-board….
Day 1-3:

'It has been 10 hours since we last set off and there is still no sign of the coast. First light is already seen. If we do not reach the harbor (jetty) soon, we may miss our transfer ..... ….. (missing information)…'

… 'We did a total of 5 dives during the trip'…

…' We were greeted by a green turtle (Chelonia mydas) during our first dive, sort of a good welcoming gesture'…

… 'Overall, the dives were good, it was like underwater garden down below. Ecosystem seems healthy…'

… 'Apart from the usual fishes, blue spotted sting rays (Taeniura lymma) were the next most common creatures during this trip which actually made to salivate…thinking of the ikan baka (BBQ stingray)…'

Point to ponder:
Ever wonder why BBQ stinkray taste horrible when cold??

Keywords:
Osmoregulation
Ureogenic

Toddycats' first labrador walk

2008-03-16T23:39:00.000-07:00

On 8th March 2008, toddycats conducted a walk at Labrador Park for its members.. I had the privilage to be the guide for the group from NUS-SPS(Special program in Science).

The walk was scheduled to start at 4pm. However, the over enthusiasm of the SPS group caused them to arrived extremely early, at 3:15pm, and waiting at the designated meeting place. As such, they had to wait for their guide who, oblivious to them, slipped into their midst when he arrived at 3:30pm!

However, at 4pm, other than this group of people, no one else was around! Deep in my mind, I was concerned: Was no one else turning up? Then I called Siva, but he did not pick up the phone! Oh no!... Until I heard news from one of the other participants...

In fact, the rest of the participants were gathering and waitng at the entrance of the park, and eating ice-cream with Siva! It was only at around 4:30pm that they slowly strolled to the designated meeting point...

The walk proceed as expected since then.... I was unable to take any pictures on that day as I was busy guiding. However, my enthusiastic group contributed the following pictures..

Love is in the sea...

2008-03-09T09:18:00.001-07:00

On 9th March 2008, the group 'Hermit Crab' consisting of 7 participants and 2 guides visited the Semakau Landfill with the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research for Nature Walks. The main guide was Ka Ching and her assistant: Justin.

When we first arrived on the island, it was raining cat and dogs, which was a disappointment for many of us as our walks are very rain dependent. However, it stopped right before the Semakau tour began.

Landfill tours

Participants were first introduced by the NEA guide to the operations of the landfill through a bus ride along the man-made bun which surrounds the site. Along the way, they were introduced to the marine-transfer-station where participants had opportunity to smell the incinerated waste to be deposited on the landfills. Next, they were shown the landfills cells while travelling along the man-made buns to the southern-most point of the landfill, which is also the southern-most point at which the public can access. There, the participants alight for picture taking.

Next, the bus brought the group to the entrance of the secondary coastal forest which grows on the actual Pulau Semakau. There, the group tracked along the water-logged footpath to the intertidal areas of the island, where the shore tours began, incidentally with strong theme of love..

Arrival at the shores

First, participants were briefly explained by Ka Ching to intertidal zone of the shores. Hence, emphasis was on the need for adaptions of the creatures found there due to the harsh conditions caused by tidal change. Thereafter, they were introduced to the first animal on the shore - OYSTERS.

Love Choice of female Fiddler

Next, the group were led to the small mangrove patch where they were introduced to the plant and its community. Examples include the stilt root and vivipary of the Rhizophora plant, the anaerobic conditions of the soil and most captivating, the love life of the fiddler crabs.

The male of the fiddler crabs has one of its claws abnormally enlarged. With this cumbersome large claw, the male feeding and movement ability is compromised. On top of that, their large claws make them easier to be spotted by predators and to some extent, decrease their survival chances. Hence the question was: Why then does male fiddler crabs have one abnormally large claws if it is so disadvantage to them? The answer is in LOVE...

Biologically speaking, this is called sexual selection, where in this case, the female fiddler crabs have a "WEIRD" preferences to mate with males with one abnormally large claws. Hence the results: Male offspring also have one large claws. Thus, this traits are passed on to subsequent generations. Males with claws which are both normal sized will therefore not be able to find mate and hence not able to reproduce. (Note: Love lesson no. 1 from nature: Love may not always be logical)

Possessive love story of Common Sea star

After that, the "Hermit Crabs" were shown the Common Sea Stars. On top of their distinct tube feet and camouflaging colouration, the next love story was told here - How to stake claim on your mate.

When the sea stars are about to mate, the smaller male will stack on top of the female in order to 'stake its claim' on the female (Picture can be found at this link). However, their sexual organs are not in contact with each other. Hence for successful mating, both the eggs and sperms were released in synchrony for fertilisation to occur externally! A very unique way of making babies.....

Bisexual?

The next love story told was from the world of hermaphrodites, with examples from some species of flatworms and nudibranch. As it requires more investments to be the female in reproduction, some of these hermaphrodites species will literally duel to be the male in the courtship! Each of them will attempt to stab their penis into an exposed area of its sex partner's body while avoiding getting jabbed itself. In some cases, they even attempt to cut off each other's penis (termed penis fencing)!! In the end, the loser of this mating duel will be the female...

Eggs of mollusks

As the group ventured further seaward, products of reproductions were spotted... Eggs... From the phylum mollusa. Strings of snail eggs were spotted. Also, the group had the privilege of watching a 'nature slow delivery' of Noble Volute (2nd picture below) laying eggs! Seeing the group's strong interest in reproduction, when a nerite was explained to them, Justin took the opportunity to show the group on how the nerites mate(Picture far below, not from the walk)

Conclusion

Therefore, the walk for the 'hermit crabs' do indeed contain essence of "Love in the sea". And its atmosphere was made more apparent under the romantic sunset backdrop of Pulau Semakau....

Pictures of some of the 'hermit crab':

__________________________________________________________________

Other organisms featured on the tour:

Fan Worm

Assortment of Sea cucumbers

Knobby Cake Sea Star

Octopus

Keywords:

sexual selection: A form of natural selection in which, according to Darwin's theory, the male or female is attracted by certain characteristics, form, colour, behaviour, etc., in the opposite sex; thus modifications of a special nature are brought about in the species.

hermaphrodite: animal having both male female reproductive organs

mollusks: A phylum of coelomate protosome animals characteristized by a soft body, viseral mass, mantle, and foot

References:

Definition: Sexual selection from Online Medical Dictionary (2000).University of Newcastle upon Tyne-The Centre for Cancer Education. Retrieved 23:00, March 10, 2008, from http://cancerweb.ncl.ac.uk/cgi-bin/omd?sexual+selection

Peter K.L. Ng, Shirley S.L. Lim, Wang Luan-Keng, Leo W.H. Tan.(2007) Private Lives, An Expose of Singapore's Shores. The Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research. Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore.

WordNet Search - 3.0: hermaphrodite. (2006). Cognitive Science Laboratory,Princeton University. Retrieved 23:00, March 10, 2008, from
http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=hermaphrodite

S. Milius (1998) 'Hermaphrodites duel for manhood'. Science News Online. Retrieved 23:00, March 10, 2008, from

http://sciencenewsmagazine.org/pages/sn_arc98/2_14_98/fob2.htm

Solomon, Berg and Martin. (2008) Biology, 8th Edition. Thomson Brooks/Cole.

'Longkang habitat' in Pulau Ubin

2008-01-13T07:46:00.000-08:00

During the earlier days, when kampongs were still a common sight on mainland Singapore, 'longkangs' were playgrounds to the now-grown-up kids. They would catch fishs such as bettas (most people know it as 'fighting fish') to rear them and subsequently used them to fight with their friends' bettas.

Also, it was also a place of owners to release fishes and other animals 'back to their nature'. Some of these released animals were not native in our region. Over time, a community of both native and invasive species is created within the longkang, eventually forming a longkang habitat.........

Recently, while walking along a road in Pulau Ubin with KS, RY, JL and IV, we chanced upon a longkang which was teaming with life. With one glance, we saw animals from 2 phylums and about 5 classes, mainly from the subphylum Vetebrata which is under phylum Chordata.

Apparently, like other longkangs, there were some invasive species, for example the tortise (class reptilia), which we could not take pictures of due to reflection of the water. Also, this fish (identification unknown) may not be a native as well.

Schools of what looked like small half-beaks were also seen as well (picture below).

As this longkang is in close proximity to a mangrove habitat, some of the mangrove species were also seen, mainly the gobies..

Also, a tree climbing crab (Episesarma sp.)was spotted by KS at the edge of the longkang (picture above). Some small mudlobster mounds (no picture) and burrows (picture below) were seen around the longkang as well. Species from the subphylum Crustacea (refer to the Spiders at our backyard..) seems to have a foothold here as well.

Couldn't resist the temptation, I decided to enter the longkang(picture below) to 'be 1 with the habitat' as well while the rest remained on the road to watch from a distance (picture far below). There, I tasted the water as well to confirm that it was fresh water.

However, time passed quite quickly and we had to move on. Reluctantly, I had to leave the longkang, bringing nothing but pictures and an experience which not many urban dwellers have in our air-conditioned nation....

Note: scientifically, there is no such term as longkang habitat.

Translation:

longkang ==> drain

Keywords:

Vetebrate: chordates which has a backbone, or vertebral column, that forms the skeletal axis of the body.

Chordates: Deuterostome animals that, at some time in their lives, have a cartilaginous, dorsal skeletal structure called a notochord; a dorsal, tubular, nerve cord; pharyngeal gill grooves; and a postanal tail.

Also featured in:

Relaxing Ubin exploration (Part I)

References:

Solomon, Berg and Martin. (2008) Biology, 8th Edition. Thomson Brooks/Cole.

Peter K L Ng and N Sivasothi. (1999) "A Guide to the Mangroves of Singapore II: Animal Diversity". Singapore Science Centre.

Labrador Episode 4: A New Hope

2008-01-08T05:31:00.001-08:00

A short time ago in the beach far away......

It is a period of debris. bloggers, writing from a hiden base, have won their first victory against the destruction to the intertidals of Labrador.

During the visit, blogger managed to take pictures of the remnant of the threat's ultimate structure, the CON-CRETE, a foreign object with enough power to destroy an entire area beneath it.

Persued with the extreme excitment, Justin races home abroad his car, custodian of the remainder concretes that can save the habitat and restore life to the beach of Labrador....

Thus... A NEW HOPE.....

Scenes from previous episodes:

Synoposis for next Episode: Return of the Labrador...
when these are removed...

Other Versions:

Under protection?

Credits:

Updates on large concrete slabs on Labrador shore

Note: abstract edited from the opening of Starwars episode 4.

Open up your eyes to the beach..

2007-12-30T23:32:00.000-08:00

Some of us may say that the beaches of Singapore are almost dead. This may be true, if we have a quick glance on the beach, seeing nothing but sand and rocks.

Well, look again... The first picture is that of a sole fish and the second is that of a sandstar, Astropecten sp. The 'stone' is in fact a ball sea cucumber! Heres the more obvious pictures..

These are the form of protection mechanism by these creatures by avoiding detection with their colouration. As such, we may not be able to spot them easily... But by going to the beaches with an open mind, who knows what else can be spotted.. On the Changi beach on mainland Siungapore... Kids??
Noo... These kids were excited by the sight of solefish and attempting to follow it... So, these are some of what you can see on the beach...

Note: The above bivalve was alive and flapping its shell when held on hand..

More information on Changi beach can be found on:

Wonderful Creation blog

Spiders at our backyard..

2007-12-20T00:01:00.000-08:00

I was invited by the 'Most Naked Hermit Crab' for a walk at Kranji Trail/Sungei Buloh Nature Reserve on morning of 15 December 2007. There were 7 of us present for the walk which started from Kranji Reservoir.

During the walk, whenever someone spotted something interesting, everyone would bring up their cameras, snapping pictures of the creatures (the following picture from left: JL, JH, SY, RY). However, my focus was on spiders, which belongs to the Subphylum Chelicerata under the Phylum Arthropoda. Horseshoe crabs, the only surviving merostomes, are also classified under the same subphylum, which accounts for the well-said phrase- 'Horseshoe crab is more related to spiders than crabs'. Marine creatures such as lobsters, crabs and shrimp shares the same phylum as spiders althougth they belong to the Subphylum Crustacea.

Hence, my quest was to look out for spider and webs throughout the walk.

My first observations was on the different types of webs they build. I noticed that some spiders build orb-shaped webs, while some build tent-shaped webs(picture unavailable) and some don't build webs at all.

One example of a non-web builder is the 'crab spider' which ambushes preys instead of trapping them, which we commonly know. However, they are not active hunters. Instead, they camouflage among flowers with their body coloration in wait for unsuspecting preys before graping them with their front appendages. As the name suggests, these spiders are recognised by their resemblence to crabs with their 1st 2 pairs of legs held in a wide position resembling the claw-appendages of crabs.

Another active hunter found was the Fighting Spider (Thiania bhamoensis). It has the ability to jump around with its muscular legs. However, these spiders do builds tent-shaped webs for protection purposes, such as storing their eggs, instead of prey trapping. While we were taking pictures of it, the spiders was 'jumping from one camera to another- RY' because of its curious nature.

As for prey-trapping spiders, I had the privilage of observing a live action of a orb-web spider (Brown sailor spider, Neoscona nautica) trapping its prey. As I was taking picture of the spider, it suddenly scurried to the lower region of web where a small struggling insect was trapped. The spider was observed what seemed like wrapping the prey with silk (other processes may happen as well, though not observed). In less than a minute, the prey was fully wrapped and became completely motionless before the spider moved back to its orginal position on the web.

Brown sailor spider (top: before prey got trapped, bottom: prey fully wrapped by the spider)

On top of that, we spotted a few other species of orb-web spiders, mainly the Oval St Andrew's Cross Spider (Argiope aemula) and Hasselt's Spiny Spider (Gasteracantha hasseltii).

Oval St Andrew's Cross Spider (top) and Hasselt's Spiny Spider (bottom).

Also, in the mangrove area, we saw this spider with a huge white sac beneath its body, probably a egg sac. As suggested by SY 's friend, it might be a huntsman spider (family Sparassidae).

As spiders have hard exoskeletons, in order for their size to increase, moulting must occur, just like crustaceans. Along the Kranji Trail, I managed to spot one of the shedded exoskeleton of an unknown species of spider.

We were fortunate the rain came only after the walk. All in all, although tired, each of us managed to bring back many photo memories of the pieces of nature in Singapore. And for me, specifically the relatives of crustaceans.....

Keywords:

Arthropod (ar'throh-pod): An invertebrate that belongs to phylum Arthropoda: characterized by a hard exoskeleton; a segmented body; and paired, jointed appendages.

Exoskeleton (ex" oh-skel'eh-ton): An external skeleton, such as the shell of mollusks or outer covering of arthropods; provides protection and sites of attachment for muscles.

References:
Solomon, Berg and Martin. (2008) Biology, 8th Edition. Thomson Brooks/Cole.

Peter K L Ng and N Sivasothi. (1999) "A Guide to the Mangroves of Singapore II: Animal Diversity". Singapore Science Centre.

Joseph K H Koh. (1989) "A Guide to Common Singapore Spiders", BP Guides, Science Centre.

Note:

Initially planned an entry covering on Pasir Ris Mangrove on 'Playing Death.. to stay alive' before this. However, regretfully, the pictures were all accidently deleted from my computer, hence abandoning that entry.

Labrador speaks a thousand words...

2007-12-12T04:46:00.000-08:00

Note:

Picture taken on 12/12/2007

Pictures not modified by any software

Story-line subjective to individual's interpretation

Please help add words to this entry by leaving your comments at the end...

Backlinks and/or Related Entries:

Labrador Park seashore environment... with CONCRETE?!?

Is the Labrador talk really that cheap?

14th Anniversary Walk of Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve

2007-12-10T02:23:00.000-08:00

The 14th Anniversary Walk of Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve was conducted by Raffles Museum Toddycats on the morning of 9th December 2007. The walk was conducted when the tide was rising. As such, most of the amphibious organisms were covered by the waters. Despite this, we still managed to see some mangrove creatures. For this walk, I was grouped together with the 'undergrads' covering primarily the Mangrove broadwalk.

The zones of this mangrove are broadly identified as the Back Mangrove, Mud lobster mound system, Main forest and the sand bank based on the tidal height, topography and the dorminant vegetation. This mode of classification is however different from the other relatively undisturbed mangrove forests in this Southeast Asian region, where they contain zones of single-species of plants occuring in relation to the distance from the sea.

The walk started off at the Back Mangrove zone, which is the vegetation zone behind the mangrove. As this area is above the HHWST, it is seldom covered by the tide. Here, we spotted a few bright-yellow Sea Hisbiscus flowers hanging high on its trees. This was also the dorminant plant in this zone. Also, a few other species of flora were spotted in this zone.

(Picture from http://mangrove.nus.edu.sg/guidebooks/text/1063.htm )

Proceeding into the main forest zone, tree-climbing crabs were seen aalmost motionless on the trunks of the trees. As such I managed to take a 'close-up' picture of one of them.

Upon further observation, the claws of the crabs were slim and downward facing. Such structurs were mainly related to their diet which are primarily leaves. This difference in claw structures can be observed with crabs which has thick claws to break open shellfishes.

A giant mudskipper was also seen here.

As for the fluna, in this zone, adaptions features such as prop roots and aerial roots to deal with the conditions of mangrove were seen

As it began to pour as we reached the sandbank zone, we seeked refuge under on of the shelters along the broadwalk. There, we spotted a horseshoe crab was seen swimming inland. It was exciting for me because I never seen a swimming horseshoe crab before. As the whole body is aromourised, only the posterior horizontal flap of the crab was seen flapping up and down. The remaining parts looked as it was not moving at all.

Due to the rain, as well as the rising tide, we did not manage to see much for the remaining portion of the walk. However, it was still a fruitful one though.

Is the Labrador talk really that cheap?

2007-12-02T03:09:00.000-08:00

The newspaper article, Undersea garden takes root (ST, 29th Oct 2007) revealed to some groups of nature lovers that that the debris which they spotted scattering around on the beaches of Labrador nature reserve since last year. As such they began to voice their concerns through the Internet and subsequently were approached by Straits Times on November 26th.

After reading some of the entries, I decided to avail myself as a volunteer for monitoring the corals on their SEACILs so as to know more about project, and hoping to find the out the truth in the current situation. This was suggested by one of the Labrador Nparks officer. As such I attended the briefing a few Saturdays ago by Capt Frederick Francis, the project leader of SEACILs.

In a nutshell, the briefing touched on the following issues. .

First, he introduced himself as being a senior lecturer at Singapore poly and also does a lot of UN work as legal consultant for IMO. As such, he said that ‘environmental research is by opportunity’ as he is not a researcher.

Also his core team comprises of 3 members, that they were all strictly volunteers who are not paid for the project. Other volunteers helped only whenever it is required. As one of the 3 is ‘offshore diving superintendent’, he travels around often, leaving the other 2 running most of the show.

During the briefing, he also made mention that he is working with the Nparks and MPA on this project because the area is their ‘territory’. Apart from that, the project is independent under the umbrella of SP although experts were also consulted once in awhile.

With regard to the structures, the SEACILs were created on the beach (picture seen in the lab showed that it was the inter-tidal area) during low water (tide). They were transferred to the sea during high waters. PVC pipes were used as ‘sea curtains’ reducing the amount of sediments reaching the transplanted corals. This method, he said, used less money than the conventional methods.

He said the materials used for the project was in compliance with the 1999 OSPA (Oil Spill Prevention Act?), which are mainly seawater, beach sand and cement. These materials, he said, are not just biodegradable, but was good for the environment.

To help us understand the project better, we were brought to the on-site laboratory which consisted of a container within a small fenced up compound. There, we were shown a down-sized replica of the SEACILs in a tank as well as picture posters taken in the course of the project, one of which was pertaining to the concerns raised by the other wildlife blogs.

Earlier during the briefing, Capt explained that if they are destroying things, why (they) come down, why they spend their time, which he rather spend his time outside with his family. (paraphrased from his quote). Also, he said that he is worried only about what he was “only worried about what (he) is doing”, and choosing to ignore the ‘protesters’.

However, according to ‘the(new)mediaslut e-zine’ website touching on this issue, “ignoring email complaints is a very risky thing to do in the field of communications these days.” Hence, “without a proper explanations on questions, these email senders will craft their own conclusion which may be misguided or just based on hearsay.” Thus, accountability is an essential aspect of any project, especially in this days of mass-media coupled with free speeches.

With regard to the issue of destroying things, the issue was not so much in the actual SEACILs itself. After all, it is an experiment and success or failure is merely part the learning experience for the team. Genuine ‘protesters’, who spent precious time voicing their concerns and taking pictures of the debris, would not have poked their nose into such results, unless the project have somehow, consciously or sub-consciously, affected their area of concern, in this case the marine environment.

Hence the issue here is that of the debris left behind which can be seen 'literally from the beach and jetty... at low tide'. Coincidentally, these debris were found on the Nature Reserve itself, where no foreign structures is allowed to be placed in the first place, much less large concrete slabs. According to one reply to this issue at tomorrow.sg, ‘building an artificial reef should not be an excuse for dumping rubbish onto any of our shores.’ All that the nature lovers want is that the team does not destroy their patch of nature in an attempt to do their bits for the environment as well.

In addition, the intertidals of Singapore is alive and not dead. As such, it is particularly important to groups such as students and other nature lovers who don't dive. Recently, the wildfilms featured an article about the importance of seashores to students.

Therefore, immediate remedial actions should be taken, taking into consideration the entire aspects of our nature. These will greatly enhance the effort of everyone in doing their parts for the environment –those who appreciate the rocky shores and living intertidal habitats such as seagrasses, and lower reef flats while the project team successfully researched a new-generation artificial reef in the subtidal area for the betterment of our future.

Additional case study on the nature blogger – wildfilms

The group, which comprises of volunteers, has been documenting the intertidal on all parts of Singapore. Their intention is to convince Singaporeans that we have living shores that are worthy of protecting not only through mindful development, but also by awareness that activities such as collection, driftnets, littering can damage and even kill our shores. As such, they have raised other environmental issues such as:

Apart from that, the group has also worked with scientists in learning more about Singapore shores. Some scientists includes Dr Daphne Fautin (world anemone expert) and Dr Dan Rittschoff (from the US). On top of that, they were also involved in the Chek Jawa Recovery Project and the study of dog-faced watersnakes in Singapore.

Members of the group also volunteer as guides on many of the nature walks offered to the public.

Labrador Park seashore environment... with CONCRETE?!?

2007-11-25T06:19:00.000-08:00

Taking a break from my revision, I decided to visit Labrador park yesterday during the LLWST- hoping find something interesting on the entire inter-tidal zone. True enough, I have found something that is blog-worthy..........

Upon reaching the park, there were a few people already busy snapping their cameras. Hmm, I am about to be one of them as well! Never mind about that, I had a quick glance around the area before I entered the 'last rocky shore of Singapore'....

To my sadness, I noticed many artificial structures lying around when the tide recedes. Some of them even looked like the SEACILS which was featured on the newspaper on Oct 29th 2007, which aims to build a underwater garden. This is further confirmed from the article in Straits time today! They look like the same thing! It is really sad that in the attempt to improve the vibrancy of the sub tidal areas, part of our Nature Reserve is concreted. Isn't it amounting to almost 0 net gain ecologically??

Imagine: in future, we may have an Artificial Reserve in place of Nature Reserve in Labrador..

In my opinion, the sub tidal SEACIL, which house the 'relocated' corals may enhance the seashore environment in Labrador Park if it is successful and done in a "Reserve sensitive" way. But now, we may not even have a Labrador rocky shore habitat if it is piled with concrete!
Ok. Enough of Lamentation.. Get on with business... before, next time I may not even have a chance to see any rocky shores on Singapore anymore.. Anyway, I had barely 1hr before the tide rises and the sky turns dark.

As for the remaining of the intertidal zone, the dominant species present there is the sickle sea grass(Thalassia hemprichii), which is the favourite food of Dugongs1. In case you are wondering, yes, Dugongs have been sighted off the shores of Singapore! Also, tape sea grasses (Echalus acoroides), which is the longest sea grass found in Singapore, are seen. Anyway, a group of 3 RGS students have adopted the 'sea grass at Labrador for monitoring'.

Apart from the sea grasses, the zone also feature other species from the Kingdom Plantae such as the filamentous green algae, Comb seaweeds, Mermaid's Fan and the Red Seaweed. On top of that, at the lower intertidal zone some isolated sponges(phylum porifera) were seen. Together with the sea grasses, the intertidal zone looks like a hidden enchanted garden, which is revealed only when tide recedes.
And in this enchanted garden, life is teeming within it! While walking on the exposed seabeds, small fishes, prawns and shrimps could be see swimming in the remaining patches of water left behind and crabs were seen crawling on top of rocks, while molluscs were seen almost motionless under the setting sun.

As this is a rocky shores covered with sargassum, hairy crabs (Pilumnus vespertillio) are abundant here. However, due to their shaggy appearance, which helps them break their natural outline, it is harder for us to spot them. This applies to their predators as well. But on the concrete remains of the SEACILS, which does not provide a proper background for its cryptic colouration, the crab was instantly spotted!

Another piece of nature which caught my attention, and even drawn me in for a few minutes was when I saw a pistol shrimp (Alpheus sp.) "doing some construction work from its burrow". It was seen busily moving in and out of its burrow, pushing sediments out everytime it exited. I managed to catch it on a video clip. (the uploaded version is not as clear as the original version, please email me to get the orginal version).

Time literally flew when I was there, with so much to see, yet so little time. Just a blink of the eyes, the sky began to darken, which indicated that its time for me to go back, bringing along a variety of emotions- Satisfied with the sight of nature, sad with the current 'concrete' state of the shore and disappointed with people responsible for such damages.

Keywords/terms:

LLWST: lowest level of the low water spring tides

cryptic colouration: Colours/ marking that help some organism (in this case, hairy crab) hide from predators by blending into their physical surroundings. (Refer to references)

References:

Peter K.L. Ng, Shirley S.L. Lim, Wang Luan-Keng & Leo W.H. Tan. 2007. Private Lives- An Expose of Singapore's Shores. The Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research. Department of Biological Science. National University of Singapore.

Dr Leo WH Tan, Peter KL Ng. 1992. A guide to seashore life. Singapore Science Centre.

Solomon, Berg, Martin. (2007) Biology, 8th Edition. Thomson Brooks/Cole.
(for the definition of cryptic colouration)

Related Links/Blogs:

After posting this entry, I have been told by some of my friends that this entry is linked by some related entries on Labrador as follows:

Updates on large concrete slabs on Labrador shore

http://wherediscoverybegins.blogspot.com/2007/11/discovery-labrador-mangroves-on-25-nov.html

Pitcher, pitcher everywhere, nor any drop to drink.

2007-11-15T06:26:00.000-08:00

A deviation from the theme of the blog....

Introduction:
On 15 Nov 2007, a group of students from NUS embarked on an adventure into an undisclosed forest to conduct a field study on pitcher plants (Nepenthes Spp.). Though this, the group achieved the following agendas:
1. Understanding if there is any difference in the trapping successes of preys for pitchers in shaded areas and pitchers found in unshaded areas.
2. Found 3 species of pitcher plants within the forest.

Setting out
The expedition began with the transport bringing the group to the forest where pitcher plants are known to thrive. Upon reaching he edge of the forest, the expedition group had to continue the expedition by foot into the forest trails in search for the forest patch.

Many pitchers found!
Just within minutes into the forest, the group began to notice pitchers sparsely scattered on the undergrowth layer of the forest- most dominant species being the Nepenthes gracillis.

As the group ventured deeper into the trial, they found themselves surrounded by pitchers of species Nepenthes gracillis!

Pitchers were found on the ground, as well as hanging a few meters above ground; in shady areas, as well as areas which are unshaded; along the trails as well as in the forest patch!

In short, pitchers were found everywhere!

First objective!

At this point, the curious group began to wonder if pitcher plants under shade share similar prey trapping successes as pitcher plants found in unshaded areas?

As such, the inquisitive group decided to conduct a short study to test if there is a significant difference in the number of preys in the pitchers between pitcher plants found in shaded areas and unshaded areas. Hence, they divided into 2 smaller groups to gather datas of 15 pitchers each from 2 plots of the forest, one shaded and another unshaded. Diameter of peristomes and the pitcher's length were measured.

The amount of prey ensnared in the pitchers were counted as well. This was done by pouring the liquid contents on a petri dish before visually counting it.

Apart from finding dead ants in the liquid, live animals were found as well! There were live mosquito larvae, ring worms and crab spider moults, which may indicate a mutualism relationship (maybe similiar to that of clown anenome fish and sea anenome).

The datas collected were then consolidated and statistically tested and the results showed that THERE WAS NO DIFFERENCE IN THE PREY COUNT BETWEEN PITCHERS IN SHADED AND UNSHADED AREAS.

The group moves on... and found other species!
Enlightened by the findings, the group moved on, searching for more pitchers along the forest trails.

After a short hike, the group found another species of pitcher plant- Nepenthes ampullaria. The stem was horizontally on the ground before rising vertically upwards with clusters of pitchers at intervals along the stem. It was a AWEsome sight!

Also, it was observed that the clusters of pitchers up the stem were progressively older.

After spending some time admiring this beauty in nature, the group continued on with their adventure in the forest. Along the way, picture of this flowers (below) were taken.

Wallking further, more pitchers were spotted... Wow! This time, was the raffles pitcher plants -Nepenthes rafflesiana. Again, they stopped and took more pictures!

After some picture taking, the team was extremely satisfied with their findings of the day and decided to find their way out of the forest using a different route from which they came in by.

Tiring hike out

The walk out was indeed tiring, which was reflected by the 'half-dead' faces when they exited from the forest. However, this adventure was nevertheless a fruitful one, where everyone went home with new insights on the prey trapping behaviour of pitchers, as well as having the opportunity to see

pitchers, pitchers everywhere....

Group photo of the expedition team for pitcher plants! (above)

Absent: Joelle(phototaking) & Zeehan(MC)

Note: The location of the forest is undisclosed to prevent unnecessary poaching of the wonderful pitcher plants. However, please be assured that the location is somewhere in Singapore! For those who knows the forest, please swore to secrecy about the location of this enchanted forest....

Keyword:

peristomes: area around the mouth of the pitchers

'Bro, you come at at the wrong time'

2007-10-26T05:30:00.000-07:00

" Alright guys, just awhile more... Ok, now lift your net up!"

These were the words of one of the LSM1103 TA, Karenne Tun, to her groups right before we set out towards the sea for our dive. This time, Lynn and Min Sheng, both PADI DMT, accompanied me for this dive. With many LSM1103 students and TAs staring at us.

For experienced divers, the best time to dive is during the slack tide when the movement of water is minimal. However, due to the desire to synchronise with the groups having the field trip so as to obtain a correlation between their 'catch' and our sightings, we resorted to dive during the low tide. On top of this, it was spring tide today!

Nevertheless, we dived anyway. First, because of of the desire to find out what lies beneath during this time. And secondly, to understand the condition of diving during this 'inadvisable' period.

So the dive began at depth of about 2m. The visibility was so bad that I could not see the beam of the dive torch. In other words, there was no visibility. As such, we could see NOTHING. However, as I was attempting to navigate, my hand got hold of a empty bivalve shell. Due to the lack of visibility, we decided to ascent and reluctantly abort the dive. We were only 10mins underwater. Also, the spring tide current swept us about 200m towards the west.

Below is the video clip to illustrate the extremely bad visibility of the waters at the depth of 1.1m.

On the surface, I managed to have a look of the shell and discovered that it was that of a blood cockle (Anadara spp.) which is related to clams which mostly populate the inter- and shallow sub-tidal depth range. The pigments of the live cockle is contains haemoglobin which is similar to that of human blood, which is most probably the origin of its common name.

Upon approaching the beach, we encountered patch of marine clay at the bottom of the shallow waters. As such, Lynn and I had difficulty moving because our legs sinked into the 'soft ground' after every steps. Eventually, we reached the beach safely though.

On land, we went to look at the tanks which contain the 'catch of the day' from the LSM1103 groups. It was full of ANIMALS!! The nets which we saw before the dive do indeed had a catch!! Some species include moon crab (Matula lanaris), Copper Banded Butterfly Fish (Chelmon rostratus), Leather jacket (Monacanthus sp.), Puffer fish (Arothron sp.) etc.

Instead of taking pictures outside the tanks, I decided to test the water resistant function of the camera by submerging the naked camera in the tank while taking pictures. However, most of the pics are overexposed though.

To sum up, these are the following lessons learnt today although our objective was not fulfilled:

1. Life is present in Changi beach (as revealed from the catch), though while underwater we may not see them underwater, including the sessile.

2. Spring and low tide is indeed not a good time to dive.

3. New informations for future dive in Changi (will be revealed later)

Therefore in ending, I would like to quote from the comment of the TA Jeff:

"Bro, you come at the wrong time la!"

Keywords:

Slack tide: time during which no appreciable tidal current is flowing in a body of water.

neap tide: times with minimum fluctuation of tide, happens when sun and moon, relative to earth, are at right angles to each other.

Spring tide: times with maximum fluctuation of tide, happens when the sun, moon and earth are in alignment.

References:
Manuel C. Molles Jr (2007). Ecology Concepts & Applications, 4th Edition. McGraw Hill. P60.

Blood Cockle. A guide to seashores in Singapore. Retrived on 26th October 2007 from

http://mangrove.nus.edu.sg/pub/seashore/text/156.htm

The Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving 3rd edition. PADI.

Slack water. (2007, October 24). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:00, October 26, 2007, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Slack_water&oldid=166802446

Upcoming:

Inspired by the lecture on protection, I have decided to write a short entry about the common Copper Banded Butterfly Fish (Chelmon rostratus) and how it protect itself from predation in a unique way. Watch out for this entry which will open you EYES to the "EYE" of the butterfly fish titled:

Butterfly fish and its little black dot.

Plan: Explore the waters off Changi Beach

2007-10-18T17:22:00.000-07:00

Changi beach: a place where NUS students visit for their LSM1103 practical, where what they learned from lecture comes to life. Last week, when they were having their field trips, some students got into the water with the nets and managed to catch up to 10 species of organisms before releasing them back into the wild.

This brought back fond memories when I was there 2 years ago learning about biodiversity. I was one of those who volunteered to get wet. Before getting into the water, I was skeptical that we could net anything in such murky waters, but I proceeded on with the ‘motion’ anyway. After dragging the net over a distance of about 20m ( if I remembered correctly), we pulled the net up the shore. To my amazement, we netted many different species of ‘underwater creatures’ from the Subtidal zone! This totally changed my perspective of the wildlife diversity in the waters off Changi beach.

Likewise, I believe that this field trip has done similar magic to the cohort of yr1s who visited Changi beach last Friday where they caught animals like:
· Baby solefish
· Pipefishes
· Crescent Perch
· Filefishes
· Baby butterflyfish
· Scorpionfish
· Rabbit fish
· Spider crab (Phylum Arthropoda: Sub-phylum Crustacea)
· Seahorses
· Ctenophores (phylum Ctenophora)

Such sightings indicated that our local waters do indeed have RICH DIVERSITY OF MARINE LIFE and thus dispels the statement that “the waters in Singapore are so murky that there is nothing alive down there." And who knows, unidentified species of marine creatures are dwelling in our murky waters. Afterall, we are ‘located within one of the few epicenters of marine biological diversity in the world’.

Now that we have found many animals swimming off the shores of Changi beach, curiosity is raising within me if there are sessile creatures growing on its seabed. If there is, how rich is its diversity? Thus, the CRAZY MAN is planning to dive off Changi beach next Friday (26th Oct 2007), to know more about ‘Life on the seabed off Changi beach’.

However, due to safety reasons, I will NOT dive alone, after-all I am not compromising my professionalism as a PADI divemaster (I am talking crap, but true though). So, I am inviting divers who are interested to discover what lies beneath to join me in this adventure. Also, for further safety, I am also looking for someone to do a look-out from the land as well (as shown in pic on the right).

If interested, please e-mail me at justinsng@yahoo.com.

“One must get past this self-imposed mental block that there is nothing in Singapore waters and look! Only then will nature open itself up to our eyes.” - Chua Sek Chuan, Nature watch

Here are some of the some of the essential information for that particular dive.

Planned time of day: Afternoon
Tide: Low tide

References:

Seahorse surprise last Friday. NUS Module Blogs, LSM1103 BIODIVERSITY. Retrieved on 2007-10-19. <http://moduleblog.nus.edu.sg/blogs/lsm1103/archive/2007/10/17/seahorse-surprise-last-friday.aspx>

Abigayle Ng on Changi's marine life and links to find out more.NUS Module Blogs, LSM1103 BIODIVERSITY. Retrieved on 2007-10-19. <http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/pub/naturewatch/text/a083a.htm>

Marine biodiversity. National University of Singapore. Retrieved on 2007-10-19. <http://www.tmsi.nus.edu.sg/research/mb2.htm>

Tide Times For Singapore. National Environment Agency. Retrieved on 2007-10-19.
<http://app.nea.gov.sg/cms/htdocs/article.asp?pid=2293>

The attitude towards nature.

2007-10-16T22:52:00.000-07:00

Here's the paradox of us toward our mother earth,
where most of us are guilty of.

We love to live near nature, but hate to live with them.
So we try to remove them, from where were once their home.

We love eco-tourism, but hate their ecology.
So we build our habitat there, to mirror our urban nest.

We love the nature-theme, but hate to be in nature.
So we bring them to our land, into places where we made.

We love the word conservation, but hate to conserve the nature.
So we donate to protection groups, and leave the job only to them.

We love our earthly home, but hate to live in earthly conditions
So we create heavenly conditions, in our house to pamper our earthy self.

We like to have our own doctrine,

of how we should treat our land,
while she is crying out in pain,

as we hurt her in the process.

Written by: Justin Sng

Photo References:

Apollo 17 30th Anniversary: Antarctica Zoom-out. Scientific Visualization Studio. NASA (2002-11-21). Retrieved on 2007-10-17.

<http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a002600/a002680/>

"AquaDom, the world's largest cylindrical aquarium".Fogonazos Asombros diarios. Retrieved on 2007-10-18
<http://fogonazos.blogspot.com/2007/01/aquadom-worlds-largest-cylindrical.html>

Loh Kok Sheng. 'The mussel beds in Chek Jawa.' Chek Jawa Mortality and Recruitment Project. Retrieved on 2007-10-17
<http://cjproject.blogspot.com/2007/09/mussel-beds-in-chek-jawa.html>

LSM 3261 Assignment - Blog Action Day Surprise!

2007-10-15T09:26:00.000-07:00

15 October is Blog Action Day and everyone is encouraged to blog about the environment on this day. So our dear environmental-friendly lecturer, with the intention of training us for the 'ability to write concisely, with sufficient enthusiasm, absorb information and deliver it with accuracy, to be able to avoid unsubstantiated speculation and craft a logical storyline'

He decided to award us 5% of our module marks for writing a reflection as if we are submitting a piece for inclusion to a science blog portal and hope to increase awareness about the research, methods or other elements he expounded on during his talk. Hence, I decided to post up my "submission" here as well, for the fun of it. ....

European shore crab (Carcinus maenas). Peter Barfield /Sea-nature Studies (published on the MarLIN Web site)

Natural selection comprises of two components, ecological selection and sexual selection. Though essential, they tend to contradict each other in terms of how the mechanisms function. As camouflage is associated to the aspect of ecological selection while communication is associated to sexual selection, it is thus inevitable that camouflaging and communication colorations of crabs in Rocky Shore and Mangrove will contradict. Therefore, how does these conflicting colorations of the life forms mentioned by today’s guest lecturer, Dr Peter Todd, function for their respective survivability and reproduction?

To understand this better, we shall explore them separately first before concluding the functions of both different types of colorations to exist in the environment.

First, the camouflaging ability of crabs makes them harder to be spotted by their natural predator, thus increasing their survivability. During the lecture, the European shore crab (Carcinus maenas) was mentioned as an example to illustrate such mechanism. Crabs found in three different locations have different color patterns. Coincidently, the three places have different percentage of constituents, thus indicating a possibility of different visual backdrop. This may suggest that the crabs have evolved their colorations to prevent predation. Hence, study was done where human volunteers were asked to spot the crab shapes with color patterns over a stimulated background. Results showed that there was a correlation between the color patterns and the ease of spotting them. Thus, indicating that their color patterns serve as camouflage from predation, giving the camouflage crabs greater advantage in ecological selection, allowing them to pass on their genes to the next generations, thus ensuring the survival of their species.

In conflict to the camouflaging coloration of European shore crab, two local species of mangrove crab (Perisesarma eumolpe and Perisesarma indiarum) have bright colorations which make them easily spotted by predators. However, these colorations are important for intra species communications to attract the opposing sexes for reproduction. Experiments in the laboratory have shown that the females of such crabs have preference mates with such colorations. Thus, showing that these communication colorations function to increase their lifetime reproductive success by improving their ability to attract mates and fertilize them (Stephen C. Stearns, Rolf F. Hoekstra. 2005), which offset the tradeoff of being easily spotted for predation. Hence, enabling the species to continue their existence through the sexual selection mechanism.

Therefore in conclusion, despite the differences in the types of colorations on crabs, whether to camouflage or to communicate, they still function to ensure the continual existence of their species through various different beneficial mechanisms as illustrated by Dr Peter Todd. However, research is still on-going for the final conclusion of these mechanisms on the particular species of crabs studied.

Reference:

Stephen C. Stearns, Rolf F. Hoekstra. 2005. Evolution, an Introduction, 2nd edition. Oxford University Press. 249.

Revisit of Pasir Ris Park (Eastern Johor Straits)

2007-10-13T05:04:00.000-07:00

Fueled by the sighting of the crocodile fish during the last dive at Pasir Ris. I decided to dive at Pasir Ris again, hopefully to see it again. This dive was done with my friend, Sean Yit and we had Eugene to be our spotter as precaution. We prepared 2 tanks of 200BAR air supply per diver, hopefully giving us enough time to spot the fish again. In total, we clocked a total of 100 min bottom time over 4 successive dives between 11am to 2pm.

When we started diving at 11 am, the tide was reaching its peak of 2.8m(according to National Environment Agency website). During which, our dive visibility was about 0.5m. However, as we moved further away from the shore, the visibility dropped further, where everything was pitched dark, which led to me ending that particular dive.

Visibility did not improved during the final dive. As the tide was receding, the current disrupt the easily disturbed seabed which is muddy containing high sediment contents, causing our visibility to be lost completely once we moved some distance from the shore. Predicting that the visibility will not improve soon, we decided to end the day instead. As our visibility was limited throughout, our sightings were thus extremely restricted, although we had some new sightings.

First, seaweeds were seen scattered throughout the seabed between the depth of 1.5m to 3m, which was not seen in the previous dive at this area. However, the sea-pen corals, which appeared as the dominant species when we dived in June, was nowhere to be found!! Either that we totally missed them(highly impossible because it was found scattered everywhere the last dive) because of the visibility or that there is a 'season' for them. There, we counted about 3 species of seaweeds. We managed to spot some soft corals isolated in the midst of the underwater 'greenery' as well. On top of that, we spotted many Archimedes' spiral-shaped shell scattered between about 20m-50m from the shore as well as in the area around the breakwater. Many has hermit crabs residing in it and were actively moving on the seabed. We had the privilege to observe one hermit crab moving about as though it was scrambling with their shell overturn once in awhile. I tried to catch it on video, but was unsuccessful because of the visibility. Also, out of sheer luck, as I instinctively overturned one of the shell, I discovered that it was a living gastropod.

As for moving creatures, we were unable to spot them primarily because of the visibility and the fact they flee as we approach them. Hence, we could only see the traces of disturbed sediments created by them fleeing. Also, we could see many burrows randomly scattered on the seabed. At some spots can see up to 6 burrows within our range of limited visibility (between 0.3-0.5m). This indicate that there are burrowers present there as well.

The highlight of the sightings was during the last dive where I saw an unknown creature (to my knowledge) in a 10cm wide hole of a rock. It looked grey and look tubular curled up into a U-shaped. The only visible indication that it was living was what appeared to be a continuous moving parts located at the interior of the U-curl. As I tried to touch it with a glove, the body appeared soft. As I was doing so, it retreated further back into the hole until it was totally hidden.

In summary, although we did not fulfil our original objective of re-spotting a crocodile fish, we gained in many other aspects. First, we had many new sightings, thereby improving our impression of the biodiversity in the area. Secondly, we suspect that the area may be ever changing as the sea-pen which was dominant in June is replaced by the seaweeds. Thus making new discoveries of the area, regenerating a fresh surge of excitement towards the biodiversity of the beach...

Diving off Pasir Ris Park (Eastern Johor Straits)

2007-10-11T19:42:00.001-07:00

To create a memorable 23rd birthday, I decided to try something new: dive off Pasir Ris beach, which can be dangerous!! First, it is located along the East of johor straits which has reputation for strong current. This means that we can be easily swept to a 'distant place'. Also, the condition of water there is unfavourable for a dive: poor visibility + dirty & smelly water..

But still, out of adventure spirit, I decided to go ahead with the dive. However, the experienced reeped over the dive was indescrible, and planning to do it again on 13 Oct 2007.

The following is an account of the dive.

Location: Pasir Ris Park
Date: 28/06/2007
Time in: 1635hrs
Time out: 1708hrs
Total bottom time: 33mins

Nature of Dive: Shore Dive
Estimated maximum distance from shore: 70-80m
Tide status: high tide slack
Current: Slight current
Temperature: 31oC
Visibility: 0.5m

Depth:
Average Depth: 3.0m
Max Depth: 4.3m

Dive discription:
The dive was done from the shore of Paris Ris at about 4.30pm when the tide was high and about to receed (yet to be confirmed). It was done with 3 persons: a dive instructor, a fellow diver and me. We took our bearing towards the special (yellow) becon from the shore. The water was extremely polluted with a stench which smells like waste discharge.

To begin the dive, we swam about 10m away from the shore before descending to a depth of 1.5m. The seabed was muddy with high sediment content resting on it, which is easily disturbed. Thereafter, we followed our bearing towards the beacon. As we proceed, we gradually decended into deeper depth. Due to the limited visibility, we stayed extremely close to each other. However, we still had a lost buddy situation which forced us to ascend. We were only less than 10m away from each other though. Upon regrouping, we proceeded on with the dive.

Thereafter, we encountered 2 underwater sandbar which was parallel to the shoreline. Thereafter, we managed to encounter the base of the beacon before ending the dive.

Despite the poor visibility, we managed to spot a few visible organism. We found many sea pen corals (soft corals) scattered spaced about 2-3 meters apart on the sea bed. Size of the corals range between about 15cm to 30cm. Apart from that, we spotted at least 2 species of seaweeds (identification unknown) found in small clusters. Most memorably, we saw a crocodile fish staying motionless on the sea bed within a small cluster of seaweed. The fish looked similar to that of a mud skipper, at the tail and fins. However, the head looked like that of a crocodile with rounded and flattened beak-like structure. We observed it for about 30sec while it remained motionless before we continue the dive.

Overall, this dive was an extremely unique not just because of its poor visibility. We were pleasantly surprised at our sightings, especially the crocodile fish and the large population of sea pen corals together with a few different seaweeds. Hence, the beach contain some degree of biodiversity, which requires an observant individual to notice it.

Invitation

2007-10-11T19:33:00.000-07:00

This is Justin's subtle way of invitation to join him to explore the marine environment: