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