#48, Semakau Guiding w Meiyi - the Giant Clams!



Before the intertidal walk, we had the landfill tour which comprises of a video segment and a bus trip round the island.

The beautiful landscape at the cells that have already been filled up by the incinerated ash. Soil is then topped above these ash and whoa-la you get vegetation on it, brought about naturally by animals/ wind.

The students were shown the video about Semakau landfill, and more about how it operates.


On to the intertidal walk! Like always, before we entered the forest, there was a safety briefing; students were advised not take off their shoes, walk in a group and not touch anything that the guides have not allowed them to. Plus, if they were feeling unwell, they should let the guides know ;)
So, very excitedly, we trudged through the forest into the sandbar area.


The eggs of the Spiral Melongela Pugilina cochlidium.

The young of the Spiral Melongela hatch as a small snail with shell and foot. It's nice to see eggs of various animals at Semakau, because it shows that Semakau is full of life!


Meiyi showing the students the Common seastar.

A male Swimming Crab.

This swimming crab is a Flower crab Portunus pelagicus. Swimming crabs can swim in all directions, very versatile indeed. What enables them to swim so well? It's their 4th pair of legs that are paddle-shaped that allows them to do so. They are edible as well.

The coastal Horseshoe crab Tachypleus gigas.

There are only 4 types of horseshoe crab in the world and two are found in Singapore! The mangrove and coastal horseshoe crabs; and they are differentiated physically by their tail, the former has a rounded end while the latter has a triangular end.

They aren't actual crabs and are related more to spiders.

More info visit: http://www.horseshoecrab.org/anat/anat.html


Giant Carpet Anemone.

Hairy crab.

The new seastar!

MY and I didnt know what this was but I found from MY's blog that it's the Rose nudibranch Dendrodoris fumata
We also saw the Lined chromodoris nudibranch nearby this nudibranch.


Oscellated sea cucumber. It can't stay in the sun too long because it'll "melt".
The transparent blob-like thing that MY and I are clueless about.
The sea urchin the kids managed to spot. :)

Sandfish sea cucumber.
It was really pretty at Semakau (: The leaves were turning brown-ish.


All in all, we saw the:-

1 Horseshoe Crab!
2 Unique looking seastar (I believe it's the new one that Ron spotted during the launch of Project Semakau)*
3 Hairy Crab, otherwise known as the Teddy Bear Crab
4 Lined chromodoris Nudibranch
5 Rose nudibranch
6 Sandfish sea cucumber
7 Dragonfish sea cucumber
8 Swimming Crabs (including the flower crab and another orange one)
9 Carpet anemone, though there were no clownfish/ shrimp
10 Eggs of the Spiral melongela
11 Transparent blop-like thing*
12 Sea urchin
13 Dead heart cockle
14 Soft corals (e.g. Dead Man's finger)
15 Giant fluted clam (the students were so excited to find it)
16 Sea horse
17 Red berry snails (found at the mangroves area!)
18 Fiddler Crabs
19 Mangrove tree (i.e. Rhizophora)
20 Noble volute laying eggs x2

*things I do not know the names of, need to check them out

The soft corals side-by-side, I'm not sure if the ID for the top one; I'll check it out soon

We had to wash up after the walk

Cheers to the Giant Clam group (: Hope you guys had fun

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