Yesterday we had our very last public walk of the year. I know that there are still many people who are interested in coming for our walks but we are a bit overdue for some training of new guides. Do bear with us and stay tune for the dates of next year’s walk! In the meantime, do sign up with us if you are interested in joining our team of guides in introducing Kusu’s intertidal life to others!
Prior to any intertidal walk, guides would need to give a safety briefing to the participants. We do want to keep everybody safe while enjoying Singapore’s natural environment.
Followed by a quick introduction to the beach and lagoon as the tide goes out
In the meantime, our seekers (Abby and MS) have already been sent down with our little tags and containers to help the guides in finding things to introduce to their groups. And yes, we collected back all our little tools of the trade as the tide came in.
Onward to where all the action is! To the intertidal area!
Here is where our team of guides where in their element. Talking about the wildlife found here. From all the little shrimps and crabs, to sea stars and sea cucumbers, to corals and sponges, and even snails!
“Uncle Daniel” telling the children about the common seastar
Look at the field of seastars!!! All preparing to mass produce many more little seastar babies. Can you spot the non-5-armed seastars?
Another member of the echinoderms (”spiny-skin”), the bumpy black sea cucumber. Looks rather different from the common seastar but they are still related all the same, on account of their texture and radial symmetry amongst other things. This individual was quite stressed for some reason as can be seem from these sticky white threads that were spewed out…
examples of shrimps that we frequently (and very easily encounter) on Kusu’s shores
mantis shrimp. one of the more difficult-to-spot-difficult-to-trap shrimps. this particular individual was rather curious as it still popped out of it’s hidey-hole after a failed attempt at getting it out for people to admire. even posed nicely despite me literally shoving my camera in its face for a macro shot. not all mantis shrimps are so drab looking. the ones deeper down in the sea are actually very colorful!
we get to see anemone shrimp on almost all the walks but this is the first time I got to see a pair of them on the same anemone! like many marine animals, the larger one is actually the female, and she does look like she’s carrying eggs too! the male is a little more difficult to spot since it is smaller and the white and purple bands are far less distinctive.
there seems to be quite a bit of excitement at this “3-tag station”
and it’s mr stonefish again!! (this time minus the super-enthu participant) judging from the size and the only-mother-can-love face, we suspect that it’s the same fella we saw met last month. Also mentioned here. Another reason why we think it’s the same one: It made some movement/noise as MS was going past it, resulted in it being spotted. Perhaps it was giving a *snort* of recognition at MS our BWV shirt? 
It was still a brilliant example to go with the take-home-message of being having proper footwear when exploring nature areas
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Of course, ReefWalk is not just about bringing people around on a intertidal eco-tour. It’s also about the group of wacky people who all share this love for nature and the passion to share with others. Our resident RW pirate orang asli, MS, wrapped up this walk with a mini guide appreciation session during the boat ride back. Just to make this last public walk of 2007 all the more memorable for us. (Thanks dude! *round of applause*) Everybody was clearly in a celebratory mood. (p/s. There’s something missing in all the photos here. Can you find it?)
Our 3 newly graduated guides: Yujie, Regina, and Hanchong
And the bunch of long suffering guides ^^
(Abby, Dionne, Ching Ling, Gillian, Howard, Jun)
More photos from Abby
Until the low tides next year folks!
= Jun =
