IYOR 2008 Singapore - Presentation of Sponsorship Cheque by Herman Ho

IYOR 2008 Singapore - Presentation of Sponsorship Cheque by Herman Ho from BeachBum on Vimeo.


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IYOR 2008 - Singapore. Welcome Address by Mr Francis Lee - 08 Aug 2008

IYOR 2008 Singapore - Welcome Address by Mr Francis Lee from BeachBum on Vimeo.


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uw spectacular discodoris nudibranch @ cyrene

uw spectacular discodoris nudibranch @ cyrene from BeachBum on Vimeo.

Came across this lovely Discodoris boholiensis at Cyrene in a seagrass (Halodule uninervis and Enhalus Acoroides)patch. It's striking pattern was an eye catcher.

It was moving slowly through the seagrass patch and curled it's way around each blade.
See http://www.seaslugforum.net/display.cfm?id=7223 for more pictures.
and also http://www.nudipixel.net/species/discodoris_boholiensis/

This specimen was about 4 cm long and was found in a 30cm deep water pool.
More about Cyrene : http://www.wildsingapore.com/places/cyrene.htm

crossing paths with the dog-faced water snake@semakau

dog-faced water snake@semakau from BeachBum on Vimeo.

6am....the hunters are out hunting....the Semakau intertidal zone is a rather unusual place to find a dog-faced water snake. We've encountered them in the Pasir Ris mangroves....hordes of them all looking for food...fish...they are expert hunters of small fish.

We came across this specimen (about 60cm long) [the biggest one seen so far was about 1.2m] whilst en route to the Semakau seagrass transect 1 just past the storm canal.

Although mildly venomous (if you are a small fish)...it is mostly harmless to humans...although getting sprayed with snake faeces is not a nice thing if you decide to pick one up and it does a 'helicopter' on you.

links :
http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/verts/water_snake.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerberus_rynchops
http://www.ecologyasia.com/verts/snakes/dog-faced_water-snake.htm

seagrass lagoon nursery @ semakau 1

seagrass lagoon nursery @ semakau 1 from BeachBum on Vimeo.

The seagrass lagoon at Semakau is a very important place for young marine organisms to take shelter from predators. The young include both shrimp and fish fry. The dense seagrass lagoons make it difficult for larger fish to find the smaller fish or shrimp fry and this allows for more fry to reach adulthood and pro-create the next generation. Seagrass lagoons therefore play an important part in ensuring our fish stocks are managed well. Without seagrass lagoons, our fish stocks will be greatly reduced.

A well managed seagrass lagoon is a crucial asset to ensuring that our local waters are good breeding grounds for young fish and shrimp.

See http://research.myfwc.com/features/view_article.asp?id=20720 on the importance of seagrass lagoons.

The clip shows very young shrimp. The bodies are translucent and each was only about 1cm in length. The seagrass seen in the clip is Enhalus acoroides or Tape seagrass as it is commonly called. (see http://mangrove.nus.edu.sg/pub/seashore/text/108.htm) .
More links :
http://www.wildsingapore.com/chekjawa/text/g106.htm - on Tape Seagrass.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulau_Semakau - on Pulau Semakau.
On Seagrass Watch :
http://www.seagrasswatch.org/Info_centre/education/Seagrass_Educators_Handbook.pdf
http://www.seagrasswatch.org/home.html

flathead@semakau...gone in a flash!

flathead fish@semakau....gone in a flash! from BeachBum on Vimeo.

Was at Semakau early this morning for a Team Seagrass(TS) session.
[see http://teamseagrass.blogspot.com/ and http://wildfilms.blogspot.com/2008/08/semakau-with-teamseagrass.html]
Managed to observe this flathead fish (Family Platycephalidae?) lying in the sand. With some gentle persuasion from the end of a TS ruler, it took all of a blink of an eye for this fish to disappear in a flash of sand.