sgbeachbum

Ubin - more fiddler crabs! from BeachBum on Vimeo.

more fiddlers...

Ubin - Fiddler crabs from BeachBum on Vimeo.

These fiddler crabs are found just beside the Ubin jetty. They are extremely sensitive and finicky and will run the moment they sense movement.

The males ones are those with the pretty useless big claw. The females are ... apparently attracted to the pretty useless big claw. Life is such. These crabs seem to be free with visiting the homes of other fiddler crabs. Some males will do so and also the females. Good neighbours? If you look closely, you can spot the even tinier sand bubbler crabs which look like sand. Great camouflage! These live amongst the fiddler crabs and do not seem at risk from the fiddler crabs even though they seem to process the same patch of sand for detritus. Each tide brings with it new organic material and so the sand is enriched constantly.

Some fiddler crabs seem to be territorial whilst looking for good feeding spots. They chase away other fiddlers and even their own females!
Link : see also http://wildfilms.blogspot.com/2008/05/fiddler-crabs.html

Ubin - Fiddler crab run from BeachBum on Vimeo.
(Apologies for the rough frames at the start of the clip. I had suddenly begun to sink into the soft mud.) This one fiddler was some distance away from a suitably large hole and could not hide before I spotted him as an easy video target. Switching to macro mode, I came as close as I could to him. He froze until I waved a finger at him (finger visible at the left side) and then decided to make a run for it....and boy, could he run!

For more information on Fiddlers see :
http://www.wildsingapore.com/chekjawa/text/s321.htm

Beautiful Cyrene 8 - brahminy kite from BeachBum on Vimeo.

The clip shows a heron flying off as a brahminy kite flies in to land. The kite settles down and starts nibbling at something below. Presumably it has caught something and has it firmly gripped in it's claws. The backdrop is the petrochemical/tankstore plants on Jurong island and the foreground sees the seagrass meadow interspersed with shallow lagoons which are left behind at low tide on Cyrene.

Links :-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahminy_Kite
http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/birds/Haliastur_indus.htm

Beautiful Cyrene - Hard coral from BeachBum on Vimeo.

Cyrene Reef is home to a wonderful range of corals, Soft, hard, leathery. of different colours and sizes. The clip shows a massive Brown boulder hard coral with Jurong Island in the background. This coral had Mermaid's Fan seaweed growing on top in the crater as well along with the green-white finger algae (?).

More reading on corals :-
http://www.wildsingapore.com/chekjawa/text/c510.htm

Beautiful Cyrene - Mr Stonefish from BeachBum on Vimeo.

Synanceja horrida
With a name like 'horrida', one can only imagine the terror this fish inflicts. This one was about 25cm long and was sitting in an abandoned fish cage. Actually, it was mostly out of water already as the tide was very low. Surprising that it did not make much effort to move into deeper water. I had actually thought it was a piece of stone but then wondered what a piece of rock was doing in a fish trap. Upon closer inspection, I saw it was a stonefish. And although it was mostly out of water due to the low tide, it was very much alive. I moved the entire fishtrap towards a deeper pool which you see in the videoclip. It's underside was a reddish orange although the topside was the colour of brown mud. It did not flinch one bit whilst I was moving the cage...it just sat still and quiet...like a stone would. No wonder it is so difficult to see in the shallows or amongst rocks.

This stonefish is seen in a long abandoned fishtrap on Cyrene reef with a background of the petrochemical industries on Jurong Island. Abandoned fishtraps are a danger to marine organisms as they continue to trap and kill indiscriminately. I widenened the holes in this one to make it impossible for any fish to stay trapped when the tide was up.

Read about the dangers of a Stonefish sting :-
annals.edu.sg/pdf200408/V33N4p515.pdf

Other interesting links :-
habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/guidebooks/marinefish/text/256.htm
http://www.wildsingapore.com.sg/wildfilms/blog/2006/03/when-you-are-down-on-your-luck-keep.html

In support of http://startrackers.blogspot.com/.

Here's a short clip showing footsteps of a startracker from one end of Cyrene, finding the first Knobbly (No. 1 yellow tag) followed by a particularly large and sharp pointed knobbly at the far end of Cyrene facing downtown Singapore in the background.


Beautiful Cyrene 5 - star tracker in action from BeachBum on Vimeo.

What are Knobbly seastars?...and why should we track them?
See http://startrackers.blogspot.com/2008/05/what-are-knobbly-seastars.html

Beautiful Cyrene 4 - red snapping shrimp from BeachBum on Vimeo.

Useful Link : http://www.wildsingapore.com/chekjawa/text/g341.htm

Another link : Snapping Shrimp Stun Prey with Flashy Bang
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/10/1003_SnappingShrimp.html

Beautiful Cyrene 3 - sandfish sea cucumber from BeachBum on Vimeo.

This clip shows a sandfish sea cucumber (Holothuria scabra) moving around in a seagrass meadow on Cyrene reef.

About sea cucumbers in general :
wildsingapore.com/chekjawa/text/p630.htm

Beautiful Cyrene 2 - Synaptic Sea Cucumber from BeachBum on Vimeo.

With a horizon of petrochemical industries, Cyrene reef is a wondrous exposition of nature. Very much like a coral atoll, but not quite, Cyrene is mostly submerged and only revealed at the lowest of tides. Constantly in danger of ship groundings and chemical leaks, Cyrene is amazing in it's biodiversity.

The clip shows a synaptic sea cucumber looking for food in a rich Thalassia seagrass meadow. With it's accordian-like body tube which relies on seawater for form, it unfurls it's feeding tentacles grasping material from the seagrass surrounding it and passing it one by one to a central mouth. This one, when fully expanded, was about a metre long. However, it can contract or deflate itself, within seconds, to a fraction of it's full length by expelling all the water in the body tube.

Sea Cucumbers are Echinoderms (Class Holothuroidea)

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Cyrene Reef is a unique submerged reef right in the centre of Singapore's West Coast port surrounded by petrochemical and shipbuilding industries. It is only visible and visitable during very low tides. At other tides, the entire reef is totally submerged. At suitable low tides, access is by amphibious (wet)landing as there is no jetty or pier. Cyrene (also called Terumbu Pandan) has unique mix of various ecosystems : seagrass lagoons, sand bars, rocky shores, coral rubble and coralline areas. It's biodiversity is amazing! A reef-seagrass-sand oasis!

Uniquely Singapore!
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useful links :
about Thalassia hemprichii seagrass : http://www.wildsingapore.com/chekjawa/text/g104.htm
on sea cucumbers : http://www.wildsingapore.com/chekjawa/text/p630.htm
http://www.aquatic.uoguelph.ca/inverts/diver/marine/echinodermata/holot.htm
http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Holothuroidea&contgroup=Echinodermata

Sekudu - alluring Peacock Anemone from BeachBum on Vimeo.

Useful Link : http://iyor08singapore.blogspot.com/2008/04/other-coral-relatives-of-singapore.html

other links :-
http://www.wildsingapore.com/chekjawa/text/g531.htm
http://chekjawa.nus.edu.sg/ria/text/tubeanem.htm
http://www.wildsingapore.com/chekjawa/text/p500.htm
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Keep your shores clean. Help protect your marine environment wherever you are! Remember, you cannot digest plastic or ciggarette butts!...and nor can marine ecosystems! See http://www.oceanconservancy.org/icc

Beautiful Cyrene - Terumbu Pandan 1 from BeachBum on Vimeo.

{if the video does not play or you want to view in HD format, click on the Vimeo link.}

Cyrene Reef is a unique submerged reef right in the centre of Singapore's West Coast port surrounded by petrochemical and shipbuilding industries. It is only visible and visitable during very low tides. At other tides, the entire reef is totally submerged. At suitable low tides, access is by amphibious (wet)landing as there is no jetty or pier. Cyrene (also called Terumbu Pandan) has unique mix of various ecosystems : seagrass lagoons, sand bars, rocky shores, coral rubble and coralline areas. It's biodiversity is amazing! A reef-seagrass-sand oasis!

Uniquely Singapore!

How 2 stars avoid a 'leg-on' collision...
A 4 legged Archaster typicus vs a 5-legged Protoeaster nodosus and some tiny hermit crabs scurring away. A daily occurence at a unique submerged reef near you!


Some useful links on Protoeaster nodosus a.k.a Giant Nodulated sea star, Horned sea star or Chocolate Chip sea star :-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protoreaster_nodosus
http://www.wildsingapore.com/chekjawa/text/c631.htm

about seastars in general : http://www.wildsingapore.com/chekjawa/text/p610.htm
about starfish 'science' : http://www.vsf.cape.com/%7Ejdale/science/science.htm
how do starfish grow? : http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/art98/janstar.html

In the middle of a busy port...



anyone know specifically what kind of anemone is captured in this clip?

Pentaceraster mammillatus - a first record for Singapore!
http://wildfilms.blogspot.com/2008/04/super-star-of-cyrene-has-name.html







Some local links for Cyrene Reef :
http://tidechaser.blogspot.com/2007/03/cyrene-reef.html
http://iyor08singapore.blogspot.com/2008/04/cyrene-reef-special-reef-in-singapores.html
http://wondercreation.blogspot.com/2008/04/stars-of-cyrene-reef.html
http://wondercreation.blogspot.com/2007/11/lush-seagrass-meadow-of-cyrene-reef.html
http://teamseagrass.blogspot.com/2007/10/cyrene-reef-26-oct-07.html

BMT Maritime Consultants doing a Marine Traffic Study around Cyrene :
http://testbmtmc.bmthq.com/?/183/126/

ASEAN Regional Centre for Biodiversity Conservation (ARCBC) report on Marine Protected Areas http://www.arcbc.org.ph/MarinePA/abstract.html

Google links for Pentaceraster mammillatus :
http://iyor08singapore.blogspot.com/2008/05/cyrene-star-in-news.html
http://wildfilms.blogspot.com/2008/05/cyrene-star-in-news.html
http://zipcodezoo.com/Animals/P/Pentaceraster_mammillatus.asp
http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=213126
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/cav1i4/echinoderms/echinoderms.htm

Could juvenile (larval) specimens have been brought here via vessel ballast tanks?
Read about water ballast here :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_ballast#Water_ballast

25th April 2008 @ Cyrene Reef

Archaster typicus : pseudocopulation - reproduction on the move.
Note : the male is on top and is commonly smaller than the female


how do sandstars reproduce? : http://www.vsf.cape.com/%7Ejdale/science/reproduction.htm