Kusu was chosen to kick off this year’s round of reef surveys. Kusu has always been an under-rated site, ever since we started in 2003 - big waves, from passing mega-ships far out at sea, and exacerbated by winds, tested the stomach of surveyors on many occasions.

This time round, however, the waters were calm, and the surge, slight. Visibility was pretty good, at about 4m, which made the survey go really smoothly, even though we were short one pair of hands. We even had time (or at least I did) to check out the lower reef, where I encountered the largest seafans I have ever seen in Singapore.

(space here reserved for seafan picture)

Data processing is still on-going and I’ll post more on the results and other pictures when I get hold of them. In the meantime, you can check out Chay Hoon’s account of the trip.

Cheers, Jeff
Scientific Officer
Reef Friends Team

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

Last Saturday, the monsoon rains took a rest as BWV’s ReefFriends Survey team went out to the Sisters’ Islands. It didn’t bode too well in the beginning, with scientific officers pulling out of the dive, leaving me alone to hold the fort, with a reduced team (we had to cancel one boat) and 2 sites to finish in one day. So much for a lepak lepak trip back to Singapore waters :).

Nevertheless, we had 3 SO’s in-training on board, 2 newcomers to Reef Check who were going to learn how to lay tape on-the-job, and a boatful of divers brimming with enthusiasm and confidence (at least, that’s what I was saying to myself…)

People ask what it’s like to dive in S’pore again after a field trip to the Florida Keys, and the answer is- it was GREAT! The vis was really nice, so clear that I didn’t need to use my white balance function on the shallow transect. Plus I really missed seeing my nudis!

Phyllids are sweet… As is this polka dotted Jorunna And what’s this next to the transect tape?

Our little team of 9 was the epitome of efficiency, and we were done with our first site (Sisters Laut) by lunchtime, just as the current was picking up. Marco, the head RF coordinator, was testing out a new scheme to expand the number of fish and invertebrate species we survey, including nudibranchs and featherstars. Lots and lots of the latter today! Maybe because the currents got pretty strong?

Some of the feather-stars were tiny!

Half an hour later, the tape-laying teams bravely descended into the currents to start the second transect at Sisters Darat. The timing was perfect, such that by the time the benthic survey came around, there was hardly any water movement at all….

Benthic survey means recording immobile stuff like this hard coral!

The invert folks got excited upon seeing this m0nster sea cucumber along the transect line, but alas, it wasn’t one of the four edible Reef Check target species.

Amazingly, we wrapped the second survey by 4pm with all data intact! And this concludes the Reef Friends Southern Islands Survey for 2006! More to come next year!

So Reef Check and LIT-trained divers- Where are you??? We need you for future survey dives! Do sign up by emailing reeffriends-subscribe@yahoogroups.com with your name, survey experience (e.g. expedition trip), and dive gear rental requirements. Or write to the Reef Friends coordinators, who are all friendly people, at reeffriends@bluewatervolunteers.org.

Last Sunday I took part in the BWV ReefFriends survey dive at Pulau Semakau. We had two boats and Jeff and I were the scientific officers for our boat. Just after we finished laying the shallow transects for the survey, we chanced upon a bubu (fish trap). It was on the reefslope and didn’t have any buoys or lines attached to it. According to the Blue Tempeh, it is likely to be abandoned, or it would have been difficult to relocate and retrieve anyway.

As Jeff and I circled it, I saw something appear and quickly disappear within it. The visibility that day was pretty bad so I couldn’t quite make out what it was. But after hanging around for a while, I realised it was a big cuttlefish!

HELLO!

Did I ever mention how much I love cuttlefish? Not as food, of course… Anyway. We circled the trap looking for the door and cuttlefish followed us from within. When we found the door and opened it, it came out immediately and hung around us for quite a while. This is it just after emerging through the door.

It was about 30cm long (with tentacles)

Check out the patterns on its body. It’s exactly the same algae-covered, hexagonal patterns as the trap! How delightfully clever! My mum couldn’t believe it and insisted that it stayed inside so long that the algae had grown on its body. In actual fact, the cuttlefish is able to change not only the colour, but also the texture of its skin. Amazing!

Inside the trap there was also a red-egg reef crab. But that one needed to be cajoled out the door (actually more like gentle prodding).

Big crab!