Wednesday, November 17, 2010

The Good, The Bad And The NOT Ugly @ Little Sisters Island And Pulau Jong.....

BWV ReefFriends conducted 2 reef surveys this week. One at Little Sisters island on Sunday and another at Pulau Jong today!

So on Sunday, we carried out the reef survey at Little Sisters. And here's where the bad comes in.....Bad visibility, weather and strong currents! The vis was about 1m, we got rained out during the second dive and encountered strong currents where basically, I had to hold on to rubbles to lay the transect tapes!

Here are some pics taken during the dives;




Some hard corals were still bleaching but most of them are likely on the road to recovery!


Bryozoans.


Purplish Lace Stick corals.....


Arms of a Featherstar/Crinoid.


Little Featherstar/Crinoid on a Sea Fan!


While on another Sea Fan, it's a Basket Star!



Only came across a Phyllid nudibranch (Phyllidiella sp.) and a Black-margined nudibranch (Glossodoris atromarginata).

And today, we went out to Pulau Jong. We are blessed with the GOOD! Good weather, slack currents and Good VISIBILITY! About 6m at least!



Check out the Vis !!!

And here what we saw today;


A Mushroom coral with its stalk still attached to the substrate!


Not sure what is the ID of this hard coral. Anyone would like to shed some lights for this one?


Pebble coral (Astreopora sp.)?

Anemone coral with polyps that that look like tiny little flowers!


Pretty Corallimorphs.


Haha.....Zoanthids feeling blue? :p



The stars today are the Icon Seastar and the Cushion Star!


Little shrimp on the Sea Fan!


And also on a Sea Fan is this Allied Cowrie!


Whereas this Allied Cowrie preferred to be on some greens!


At one end of a transect tape, there was this Tiger Cowrie! It was about 8cm long! Happy to see this rare cowrie in our waters again!


A Blue Dragon nudibranch (Pteraeolidia ianthina).




Various Phyllid nudibranch!


A Gymnodoris nudibranch (Gymnodoris sp.)


A Cuthona nudibranch (Cuthona sibogae)!



Found a couple of these nudibranch (Doto sp.?) which I have seen during last month Pulau Hantu dives. And both have egg ribbons nearby!


And thanks to ML, I get to see this Girdled Glossodoris nudibranch (Glossodoris cincta) in our waters finally!

So there you are, all the NOT ugly (i.e. pretty and beautiful) creatures that we came across on both trip! Well.....except this one.....:p


A Toadfish!

Just kidding, it is still a CUTE looking fish! Awwwww..... :p

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