Please bear with us while we try to fix this problem. You can still read the blog posts by clicking on the link to the individual blog entries on the left menu bar.

-Abby

FIXED!!! by our resident web-wizard Jacki

-Jeff

The second island to be surveyed in our Reef Friends programme for 2007, Kusu has always been a challenging site to survey, mainly due to the huge waves generated by the mega-ships that ply our waters. The waves generate momentum and by the time they hit Kusu, can be a meter or so in height.

Map of Kusu Island, showing the location of the survey site.

This has not daunted the reefal organisms though, as Juanhui’s blog shows.

The coral life in the shallows was still pretty amazing, with many sizable colonies more than a meter wide recorded on our transects. Deep down, gorgonians and sea whips thrive, although at a seemingly shallow depth (about 7m) then previously encountered.

The gorgonian garden (photo by Minsheng)

Huibing and Marcel complained (happily, I might add) about the profusion of featherstars (deep invertebrate) and anemonefishes (shallow fish) on their transects. Huibing indicated in an email that she was seeing (feather)stars in her sleep!! There were sometimes so many featherstars on the whips and seafans that they were bent double from the weight!

Marcel, on the other hand, found out why Kusu’s reefs are also known as “Anemone City” to some of us. He had fun counting all the anemonefish that made these anemones their home.

The clincher, however, was the sighting of a lobster at the start of transect 5 (also see Juanhui’s blog). I think almost everyone (except me - I was too busy recording) took the time to go look at the little fella.

The little fella (photo by Minsheng)

Up top, the waves were not as active today as other days - this combined with relatively clear waters and a clear sky, made for a very pleasant trip out - at least, all of us were still looking fresh and smiling at the end of the trip

The data still needs to be compiled as it comes streaming in, so I will post those separately when they are done.

Cheers, Jeff

If you weren’t at our Earth Day celebration at the Botanic Gardens on Sunday, you certainly missed a lot of fun stuff! Check out the report and photos on the Habitatnews blog. And we’ll post our own report once the organising committee recovers!

What a glorious day it was out on Kusu Island on the 21st of April 2007. There was a high turnout of guides at the last minute and many OJT guides got a taste of guiding-full-on for the first time. They did a great job and were probably good enough without the last minute mugging at Marine South Pier. Participant turnout was great too, with very few no shows.

The skies threatened to open up on the way to Kusu but when we reached the island, the weather was perfect. A bit cloudy but we managed to catch the sunrise.

Critters were out in full force and I personally saw at least 4 octopuses (octopi?). I’m sure the participants saw at least one each. Apart from the anemones with shrimp and seastars (which have become resident sightings by now), we also saw a fire clam (wow!), a small squid (cute!), some jellyfish (yay!), onchidiums (slugs!) and many other thingies.

I had a wonderful time just pottering around before setting up the booth. Business was great that day and I even sold off one of the browsing copies of the Chek Jawa Guidebook. That was highly embarrassing- selling a tattered book with the words “browsing copy” scrawled on the front. But it goes to show that Singaporeans are getting very interested in our own local marine life. One participant even signed up to be a reefwalk guide on the spot.

If you wrote a blog post of that day, do let us know so we can link you on our blog! Read about some other people’s accounts of that walk:

cWitch’s multiply site

Juanhui’s blog

See you at Kusu Island next time!

Click on the poster for more details!