Friday, June 26, 2009

Changi Beach on 24 Jun 2009

It's been a while since I last visited Changi Beach, and thus, I decided to visit it with a few other RMBR Nature Guides.

Sea Apple (Pseudocolochirus violaceaus)
My favourite organism of the trip will be this Sea Apple (Pseudocolochirus axiologus),which is in fact a type of sea cucumber. You can see its tentacles extending out from its mouth, which it uses to gather edible particles in the water.

Pink sea cucumber (Cercodemas anceps)
There were several of this pink sea cucumber (Cercodemas anceps) too.

Pink thorny sea cucumber (Colochirus quadrangularis)
Looking rather similar to the previous sea cucumber will be this pink thorny sea cucumber (Colochirus quadrangularis).

Sea cucumber
This little hairy purple sea cucumber was rather abundant. Not sure of the ID though.

Holothuria notabilis
A Holothuria notabilis sea cucumber.

Pencil sea urchin (Prionocidaris sp.)
We only found one pencil sea urchin (Prionocidaris sp.).

Little black sea urchins (Temnopleurus sp.)
There were a few little black sea urchins (Temnopleurus sp.), and many of them had this worm-like organism near their mouths.

Salmacis sp.
A few Salmacis sea urchins (Salmacis sp.) were also spotted.

Luidia maculata
I found a total of 8 eight-armed Luidia sea stars (Luidia maculata).

Cake sea star (Anthenea aspera)
And this is one huge cake sea star (Anthenea aspera), which is about 20cm wide.

Biscuit sea star (Goniodiscaster scaber)
The biscuit sea star (Goniodiscaster scaber) is probably the most abundant sea star we saw during this trip.

Gymnanthenea laevis
A few orange-tipped sea stars (Gymnanthenea laevis) were also spotted.

Gymnanthenea laevis
Not all Gymnanthenea laevis come with orange tips though, like the one above, which also shows that not all of them come with 5 arms.

Sand star (Astropecten sp.)
After a while, many sand stars (Astropecten sp.) also started appearing.

Tube anemone
As the tide was really low, we found quite a few tube anemones too. This one has caught a little fish for breakfast...

Stichodactyla haddoni
Yet another stinging animal we saw will be this Haddon's carpet anemone (Stichodactyla haddoni). This particular individual was about 40cm wide.

Sea pen
We also found many sea pens among the seagrass.

Coastal horseshoe crabs (Tachypleus gigas)
I found a pair of coastal horseshoe crabs (Tachypleus gigas) trapped by a discarded fishing line.

Coastal horseshoe crabs (Tachypleus gigas)
Managed to release them eventually.

Velcro crab (Camposcia retusa)
This velcro crab (Camposcia retusa) certainly is a master of camouflage, and has stuck many little stones and shells on its exoskeleton, which is densely covered with little hooked hairs, just like velcro!

Elbow crab
This elbow crab (Family Parthenopidae) also managed to camouflage itself very well.

Spotted seahorse (Hippocampus kuda)
We found 2 spotted seahorses (Hippocampus kuda), and here's one of them.

Pipefishes
Closely related to seahorses are these pipefishes, which blend in very nicely to the surrounding seaweed.

Geographic sea hare (Syphonata geographica)
The geographic sea hare (Syphonata geographica) appears to be in season too.

Octopus
And lastly, we also saw several octopuses.

Changi is certainly one of my favourite shores, and again it did not disappoint me this trip. Will certainly visit it again when the tide is low next month :)

3 comments:

josephine said...

Can I check which part of Changi Beach did you visit? I didn't know we can still see so much marine life. Is it in front of the govt chalets (years back, I remember there are tidal pools during low tide) or is it the beach area between the SAF Ferry Terminal and Changi Ferry Terminal?

Ron Yeo said...

Hi Josephine, basically the entire stretch of Changi Beach is full of life, not just any particular stretch :)

josephine said...

thx.