Read all about their trip and what they saw and learnt on their Labrador blog. We hope soon they will post a photo of the new team too! :-)
Jun 20, 2008
New team at Labrador seagrass monitoring!
A new team has started monitoring Labrador again! The indomitable Mr Lim continues to lead in the fray.
Read all about their trip and what they saw and learnt on their Labrador blog. We hope soon they will post a photo of the new team too! :-)
Read all about their trip and what they saw and learnt on their Labrador blog. We hope soon they will post a photo of the new team too! :-)
Jun 13, 2008
Our 2nd Tuas Seagrass Monitoring Session
Hi all Teamseagrass members, this is the first time Schering-Plough is uploading the blog. So please pardon us if there is any error or inconvenience caused.
On the 06 of Jun 2008, the Tuas Seagrass team set of on the 2nd monitoring session in Tuas. During the previous monitoring (about Dec 2007), the seagrass (spoon seagrass) were smaller and less dense. This time round they were bigger and seems to occupy a slightly bigger area. There were 11 members that day and most of them had experience with the monitoring thus Helen "abandoned" the team to do the job as she went towards the beacon to look for interesting stuff to show them after their monitoring. The species of seagrass that one would find in Tuas is the spoon seagrass (Halophilia ovalis). Thus it was pretty easy and most of the members took a very short moment to finish their job and very soon they were joining Helen at Merawang Beacon.
The first thing that caught the interest of one of the participants was this pinky thing among the sponges. It seems to be a sea cucumber but we are not sure. There were about 3-5 of them each about 10cm long.
The first thing that caught the interest of one of the participants was this pinky thing among the sponges. It seems to be a sea cucumber but we are not sure. There were about 3-5 of them each about 10cm long.
(Oh while posting this Blog, someone informed Helen that it was a Synaptid sea cucumber)
There were lots of seafans and hydroids at this shore. The seafans looked like underwater flowers due to their colors and structures. While the participants were amazed by the display of this underwater garden, they were told to avoid contact with the hydroids. This is because hydroids is similar to jellyfish, they belong to the Phylum Cnidaria and would give you a nasty sting for days if you touch them. Thus we should try to avoid touching them and coming in contact with them by wearing long pants.
As the tide level rises quickly, very soon all of us had to go back to work. As we were proceeding back from the beacon, a few of us saw a stingray, a number of filefish and
this cute little boxfish.
this cute little boxfish.
Tuas's shoreline is really interesting and full of wonderful sea creatures. Hope we can protect the shores around us and educate the public that side effect of poaching and how we can preserve what we have now for our future generation.
Below are some abstracts from some of the comments by our colleagues.
“My first excursion beyond the fence-line of SP to the shore beyond was one of discovery.
Very fortunately we had the opportunity to walk to the rocky beacon just off the coast, braving thigh-high water. Amongst the creatures we saw were a small sting-ray, puffer fish, strange diamond shaped fish, and plenty of ‘Nemo’ anemones.
It was the perfect way to start my day.” By Komen, Raymond Paul, Quality Supervisor from Schering-Plough
“I never knew that there was a difference between seagrass and seaweed until I participated in my first seagrass monitoring project in the wee hours of the morning. Armed with much enthusiasm, I was delighted when I came up close and personal with a pink jelly fish, a spotted stingray, a baby puffer fish and an incredible variety (or what seems to me!) of corals…… This experience has heightened my awareness on the need to protect our marine life.” By Cheryl Teo, HR Manager
“My first excursion beyond the fence-line of SP to the shore beyond was one of discovery.
Very fortunately we had the opportunity to walk to the rocky beacon just off the coast, braving thigh-high water. Amongst the creatures we saw were a small sting-ray, puffer fish, strange diamond shaped fish, and plenty of ‘Nemo’ anemones.
It was the perfect way to start my day.” By Komen, Raymond Paul, Quality Supervisor from Schering-Plough
“I never knew that there was a difference between seagrass and seaweed until I participated in my first seagrass monitoring project in the wee hours of the morning. Armed with much enthusiasm, I was delighted when I came up close and personal with a pink jelly fish, a spotted stingray, a baby puffer fish and an incredible variety (or what seems to me!) of corals…… This experience has heightened my awareness on the need to protect our marine life.” By Cheryl Teo, HR Manager
Jun 6, 2008
Cyrene Reef (Jun 08)
6am and the Team is back on Cyrene Reef to monitor the fabulous seagrasses on this submerged reef right in the middle of our port!
We soon made a safe landing with Melvin and his crew of the Dolphin and were off to monitor the seagrasses. Today we were also joined by Dr Raju who is a GIS expert and has kindly offered to help map out the Reef. He came even though he had a morning meeting and had to rush off early from the field trip.
Of course, as usual, focused on doing the monitoring, I neglected to take photos of the Team at work.
With the monitoring over, we had a quick look around this amazing reef.
Although it lies right next to major shipping lanes to a world class container port, and just across a narrow channel from world class industrial and petrochemical plants, this reef has rich seagrasses, star-studded sand bars and living reefs.
The seagrasses of Cyrene are home to baby Knobbly sea stars (Protoreaster nodosus).
And there were many of these young sea stars near Site 2 which I did this morning.
Some of the stars are so small that they only had one knob on the arms! Aren't they so cute?!
Chim Chee Kong is conducting a study of Knobbly sea stars on Cyrene Reef and he was with the Team this morning. On his Star Tracker blog he has this to say about Cyrene Reef
Another special star that Robin found today among the seagrasses is this Nepanthia sea star.
It has a colourful underside too (photo on the right). This sea star is also sometimes seen on Chek Jawa. In many ways, Cyrene is like the Chek Jawa of the South.
Among the sea grasses today, I saw lots of white fan worms.
Collin spotted a Ceratosoma nudibranch.
While Sam pointed out the many slugs that resembled red algae!
The seagrasses are home to large carpet anemones (also like at Chek Jawa). 
And the carpet anemones are in turn homes for anemone shrimps! These are often found in a pair, with the larger female with bold white markings, and the more slender male who is more transparent.
Collin also did another check of the fishes of the seagrasses at Cyrene and found many of the same fishes seen at the last check; like the Bearded filefish, razorfish and many filefishes. Here's more about that trip.
I also spotted the Cowfish!
This pretty box-like fish has two horns at the top of its head that gives it its common name.
In Site 2, the seagrass area had lots of zoanthids.
Zoanthids look like tiny anemones, but each is connected to one another. So they are sometimes called colonial anemones. Dr James Reimer, zoanthid expert, is currently in Singapore and a few of the Team had been on field trips with him over the last few days; to Kusu Island and Pulau Hantu. And when the Team got back to the mainland, we met Dr James who was taking the same boat out to go diving at Hantu and Raffles Lighthouse to look for zoanthids!
There are MORE zoanthids near the reefs of Cyrene.
The pink fluffy thing is probably a red seaweed.
Cyrene's reefs have lots of large soft corals of all kinds of shapes and colours. Soft corals are colonies of tiny polyps that live in a shared tissue.
Here's a closer look a leathery soft coral colony that looks like fingers! You can see the tiny polyps in the colony in the photo on the right.
There were hard corals galore, including some rarer ones like this Acropora coral.
The reefs today were studded with busy Glossodoris atromarginata nudibranchs.
Shufen also found this strange snail.
We don't really know what it is.
All too soon, it was time to go home as the tide rushed in.
It's then really obvious that Cyrene is a SUBMERGED reef. We are taken back to the main boat in two batches and I hopped on the first ride back. Here's the rest of the Team on the fast disappearing reef, waiting to be taken back.
We soon made a safe landing with Melvin and his crew of the Dolphin and were off to monitor the seagrasses. Today we were also joined by Dr Raju who is a GIS expert and has kindly offered to help map out the Reef. He came even though he had a morning meeting and had to rush off early from the field trip.Of course, as usual, focused on doing the monitoring, I neglected to take photos of the Team at work.
With the monitoring over, we had a quick look around this amazing reef.
Although it lies right next to major shipping lanes to a world class container port, and just across a narrow channel from world class industrial and petrochemical plants, this reef has rich seagrasses, star-studded sand bars and living reefs.The seagrasses of Cyrene are home to baby Knobbly sea stars (Protoreaster nodosus).
And there were many of these young sea stars near Site 2 which I did this morning.
Some of the stars are so small that they only had one knob on the arms! Aren't they so cute?!Chim Chee Kong is conducting a study of Knobbly sea stars on Cyrene Reef and he was with the Team this morning. On his Star Tracker blog he has this to say about Cyrene Reef
The population (of Knobbly sea stars on Cyrene) contained a wide range of body size. The presence of juveniles, subadults and adults indicated that there is a healthy level of recruitment at Cyrene Reef. This habitat may be the only sustainable population of knobbly seastars left in Singapore today.
Another special star that Robin found today among the seagrasses is this Nepanthia sea star.
It has a colourful underside too (photo on the right). This sea star is also sometimes seen on Chek Jawa. In many ways, Cyrene is like the Chek Jawa of the South.Among the sea grasses today, I saw lots of white fan worms.
Collin spotted a Ceratosoma nudibranch.
While Sam pointed out the many slugs that resembled red algae!
The seagrasses are home to large carpet anemones (also like at Chek Jawa). 
And the carpet anemones are in turn homes for anemone shrimps! These are often found in a pair, with the larger female with bold white markings, and the more slender male who is more transparent.Collin also did another check of the fishes of the seagrasses at Cyrene and found many of the same fishes seen at the last check; like the Bearded filefish, razorfish and many filefishes. Here's more about that trip.
I also spotted the Cowfish!
This pretty box-like fish has two horns at the top of its head that gives it its common name.In Site 2, the seagrass area had lots of zoanthids.
Zoanthids look like tiny anemones, but each is connected to one another. So they are sometimes called colonial anemones. Dr James Reimer, zoanthid expert, is currently in Singapore and a few of the Team had been on field trips with him over the last few days; to Kusu Island and Pulau Hantu. And when the Team got back to the mainland, we met Dr James who was taking the same boat out to go diving at Hantu and Raffles Lighthouse to look for zoanthids!There are MORE zoanthids near the reefs of Cyrene.
The pink fluffy thing is probably a red seaweed.
Cyrene's reefs have lots of large soft corals of all kinds of shapes and colours. Soft corals are colonies of tiny polyps that live in a shared tissue.
Here's a closer look a leathery soft coral colony that looks like fingers! You can see the tiny polyps in the colony in the photo on the right.There were hard corals galore, including some rarer ones like this Acropora coral.
The reefs today were studded with busy Glossodoris atromarginata nudibranchs.
Shufen also found this strange snail.
We don't really know what it is.All too soon, it was time to go home as the tide rushed in.
It's then really obvious that Cyrene is a SUBMERGED reef. We are taken back to the main boat in two batches and I hopped on the first ride back. Here's the rest of the Team on the fast disappearing reef, waiting to be taken back.
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