death everywhere

I drove to Changi after work today to catch the low tide. I had wanted to observe the shore for signs of death as a result of the unrelenting rain which poured over the last couple of days. The rain had caused massive flooding in much of Johor as many rivers had burst their banks. Given that Changi and in particular, Chek Jawa lie at the mouth of the Johor river, there are many concerns that we would have a repeat of the mass deaths at these areas.

This was probably one of the weirdest trips ever because I hardly got to see anything alive. There were basically lots of dead stuff lying around the shore. I think the rain did cause some damage. Over at the shore near Changi Point, certain patches of sea grass meadows had turned brown. In fact, the shore was littered with lots of brown sea grass leaves. Still, there were some nice and healthy sea grass meadows submerged in the lower shore. I did come across two palm sized carpet anemones, one green and the other purplish sitting tight amongst the meadows. Apart from that, and a couple of sea urchins, everything else I saw was dead and in various stages of decay. I'm not sure if this had anything to do with the rain, since many of these were large fishes. Amongst the dead included 2 horseshoe crabs, cuttlefish bones, dying sponges, a dead pigeon, different types of fish, some of which quite large like the puffer fish and queen fish, bits of broken coral and even a skull belonging to some mammal.

The rain washed up quite a lot of debris onto the shore, most of which were mangrove debris. According to Ria , many of the ones washed up are rare in Singapore and had probably come from Johor.

The tides today were not very low and the waves at the usual shore we visit made it virtually impossible to see anything even if we had waded out towards the sandbar area. This probably explains why I didn't see any hermit crabs or sea cucumbers lying around. These creatures are usually quite abundant at this shore.

Tomorrow, we head off to St. Johns. It's my first time there, but from the posts i've read, the reefs and shore appear to be quite diverse. Hopefully we'll see something interesting.

re-discovering changi's shore

When I was a child, I used to frequent the beaches off Changi Point during the low tides. Often, a sandbar would appear out of nowhere and it was actually possible to walk in knee-height water towards it. I also remember seeing loads of sandstars, shellfish and in particular, the red and yellow thorny sea cucumber (Colochirus quadrangularis).

Today, I had to drag myself out of bed (having managed to sleep for just an hour) at 2am and brave the long lonely drive to Changi for what was possibly the last early morning trip for the year. Although Changi Beach Park is reclaimed, it is still rich in biodiversity, particularly since the area has lush meadows of fern seagrass (Halophila spinulosa).

Upon arrival, we wasted no time at all as the tides was not going to stay low for a very long time. One of the first things I saw were the thorny sea cucumbers I used to see when I was a child. These small colourful sea cucumbers are commonly found in our northern shores, often found in seagrass areas or clinging to rocks, dead corals and even trash like discarded glass bottles. When feeding, these sea cucumbers display feeding tentacles which are usually in hues of yellow and red. It should be distinguished from a similar looking sea cucumber known as the pink warty sea cucumber (Cercodemas anceps) which is pink and yellow and also found in our northern shores.



One of the other more unusual finds were these fairly large hairy sea hares (Bursatella leachii) . This particular species of sea slug is usually found in our northern shores (usually in silty, sandy areas near seagrasses and seaweeds) and appear seasonally. Sea Hares lack external shells and when out of water, they usually look like a jelly blob. Apparently they grow fairly large, sometimes reaching 60cm long and weighing 5kg.



I did also get to see a juvenile tripod fish, a large shoal of baby striped eeltail catfish, a pink sand dollar (Peronella lesueuri), a small lime-green starfish (which Mei Lin thinks is a baby knobbly).

It's truly amazing to know that our shores are still rich in biodiversity despite all of man's activities. Perhaps the only regret I have is the effects of land reclamation and how this has contributed to the amount of loose sediment in the area. One has to step gingerly into the water in order to get close enough to a subject.



*All images taken with Canon 7D and Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L IS USM Macro lens, Canon 580 EX II Speedlite, Canon Powershot G10*