28
August
2007
We had comparatively better weather than we had on last months Blog Dive. Despite there being rains throughout the week, the sunshine held up except for a very light drizzle after the first dive. Because of the improved visibility (3-5m) I spent most of my time shooting the colonies of coral which on other days might not be so easy to shoot from afar.
With this Blog entry, I’m trying out a new style of posting. More of what we saw over the weekend throughout our three years is now available in our new Gallery! This Gallery is powered by Flickr and designed by One Diver. Above (L-R): Seawhip, Seafan (Gorgonian coral), and a tiny Seafan recruit
Lots of pretty fishes this weekend, from this (from left) Long-finned Batfish, to Harlequin sweetlips, Five-lined cardinalfish, Tomatoclown anemonefish, seagrass Filefish, and of course, a Tigertail seahorse!
But most of all, we managed to have some great views of the huge coral colonies that continue to thrive on Hantu’s reef. Usually the reduced visibility means that the large colonies can be hard to photograph.
There were also alot of tube worms! All of those were saw today were growing within large coral colonies…
And of course! Everybody’s favourite… Sea slugs! Today was the first time I managed to find a Ceratosoma nudibranch without enlisting someone else’s help! Thanks to Chay Hoon for teaching me how to look out for them. Whilst I got so excited at spotting one nudibranch, Chay Hoon spotted 3! Despite the hundreds of dives at Hantu, I’ve got lots more to learn, and still tons more to see!
Swing by our Gallery to see more photos from this weekend’s dive!
Posted: Blog Dives
28
August
2007
Last Sunday’s Blog Dive went swell! Some of your might’ve already seen photos from that dive uploaded by regular Blog diver and Blogger herself, Chay Hoon. The Hantu Blog will be testing out a new method of photo-sharing on the Blog so the photos are going to take awhile to be loaded up. Please bear with us!
Meanwhile, I shot a handful of cool videos on Sunday that you can get on with first!
Just before we were going to jump into the water, we spotted 2 juvenile batfishes playing just below the surface of the water. But after we jumped in and swam around to where they were, we couldn’t find them. We did find this Long-finned batfish in the deeper depths however, and shy one too! This was the only video I managed to get of it despite running into about 3 times on the reef!
I’ve alwayts felt mesmerised by watching the tentacles of Goniopora waving along the reef. Now you can get a feel of it too without the hassle of diving! The reefs of Pulau Hantu has some gorgeous “fields” of Goniopora colonies!
While taking a dive in the shallow, diver Chon Min spotted this adorable juvenile Harlequin Sweetlips. During this phase of its life, it’s much easier to shoot a video of this fish than a photograph, because as you can see, it just can’t stay still! The younger they are, the more “flippy” they tend to be.
On the last dive, also in the reef shallows we ran into about 2 families of Tomatoclown anemonefish living in HUGE and gorgeous carpet anemones. While you only see about 2 fish in this little clip, the rest of the anemone has about 8 other fishes hiding in various corners of the coral, running into the tentacles to hide whenever the camera got near!I’ll be uploading the photographs soon! So please come by again during the week to check us out!
Posted: Blog Dives, Videos
10
August
2007
hi all,
We have just got our new gallery up, please click here to our gallery area.
Posted: Notices
8
August
2007
Hi,
Thank you for visiting pulauhantu.org (HantuBlog), we are currently working on the migration to this new server.
Please visit our current active blog http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/news/pulauhantu/ for new posts.
Posted: Notices
5
August
2007
Research mission uncovers many new species in S’pore waters
By Shobana Kesava Straits Times 4 Aug 07
SOME gaze into the marine firmament to look for starfish. For Dr Daphne Fautin, sea anemones give her the thrills.
As she peers down a microscope, Dr Fautin, 61, exclaims with excitement: Yet another discovery has been made here in Singapore.
The sea anemone expert has not seen anything quite like it: an anemone with bumps all the way down its throat. Just hours earlier, she and a handful of local naturalists had found one with strawberry spots running down its base.
There are about 1,000 known species of anemone, the smallest and largest of which are found in Singapore.
The tiniest one known to science, just a millimetre across, was uncovered on blades of seagrass here.
The largest, over a metre in height and diameter, makes up a complete ecosystem, supporting clownfish and shrimp.
Dr Fautin’s discoveries bring the total number of sea anemone species identified here to 40.
The discoveries are potentially significant because of the dual nature of sea anemones.
Dr Fautin said they produce the most complex cell secretions. Stinging cells called nematocysts lie on these carnivores’ tentacles, paralysing prey and pulling the trapped creature towards their mouths.
‘Past studies have found this secretion fights cancer in mice,’ Dr Fautin said. New finds could lead to new drug developments.
At the same time, these animals are so simple in structure that developmental biologists can use them to understand how cells divide to become heads, limbs or tails.
While no species of anemone is believed to be endangered, Dr Fautin said that it is possible for some to disappear before they can be identified.
The hantuensis species, once spotted on Pulau Hantu, has eluded the researchers in these last few weeks despite their efforts.
Dr Fautin warns against thinking that the world won’t miss what it never knew it had.
‘Fishermen have seen crabs and fish go missing. Only later, we found out it was because the mangroves, the habitat of their young, had been destroyed.
‘Right now, we don’t know what part of the ecosystem will also be affected down the road, because anemones have been removed too,’ Dr Fautin said.
More photos of sea anemones of Singapore’s shores on wildsingapore flickr
Posted: Uncategorized
