#74, Semakau Hunting Seeking

Yup. Today we did the intertidal survey at a new area - the hunting-seeking trip today was pretty tough because of the terrain; soft sand, rocky rubble, lotsa algal cover. But there were many interesting things seen through the trip. Felt that it was impossible to look for the the animals effectively because there was so much algae growing too, in addition to the coral rubble that was stacked upon each other... Because of that, the animals were able to hide quickly so quickly! I thought I saw a pebble crab but was not in time to get a good look at it and take a photo.

There were many hermit crabs, hairy crabs, common rock crabs, anemones, snails and worms. These seemed to be the few things appearing commonly during the survey.

Saw an octopus and pygmy squids during the survey as well. Some of the others spotted brittle stars on the way back too. Towards the reef area, we saw butterfly fish and what looks like a toadfish.

On our way back, we saw a couple of dog-faced water snake (Cerberus rynchops), which is very mildly venomous. Just to side track, I went for a practical at the zoo recently, and our T.A. mentioned how (venomous) snakes usually try to conserve as much as venom as possible because it's precious to them because they rely on it to kill their prey. So they only bite to defend themselves, injecting not too much venom.

Towards the end of the survey, we also saw the Yellow-lipped Sea Krait (Laticauda colubrina) which caused quite alot of excitement! This snake's venom can actually kill but typically, this snake is rather docile, and do not attack humans often. The snake we saw was probably hunting and minding its own business haha.

As you can see, there's algal growth. This particular species of (macro?)algae covered almost the whole portion of the intertidal area we surveyed.

We started off the survey... R. was 'surveying' the ground ahead of us. As you can see, he was already knee deep because of the soft substratum.


The area that we were doing the survey at was nearby the replanted mangroves.

A mangrove propagule I think.

An unidentified anemone. It was greenish and had bands towards the end of the tentacle.

A hermit crab at the intertidal area.

Alsoo, this was the snail commonly found at the intertidal area.

An unidentified worm at the rubble area.

A second unidentified worm at the rocky rubble.

An interesting anemone with alternating white & green bands.

The underside of the Common Rock Crab- it has very characteristic spooner-claws. Later in the survey, we found a bigger one that had already lost it spooner claws.

A bristle worm.

A colony of zoanthids. There were many many colonies at the area where we found this one.

Branched-tentacle anemone.

A huge sea cucumber.

Window pane shell.

To end the post, this was where everyone spotted the Sea Krait! Haha, it's a happy picture to end off the survey.

R.I.P. to my handphone and camera though, because I literally fell into the water with all my swanky digital gadgets (Im starting to trust technology less and less. ><). Haha. Will learn my lesson to put my handphone in a zip lock bag. My next point-and-shoot camera will be a waterproof one too HAHA.

Last but not least, thanks to R. who coordinated the trip.