Exploring Semakau with Chek Jawa Guides

Today Semakau trip was a really special one, as my visitors were my fellow guides from Chek Jawa! Thanks LK for helping to arrange this trip and making it possible for the CJ guides to visit Semakau :)



Here's a group shot of the jolly gang at the southern tip of Semakau Landfill.

And below are some of the interesting stuff we saw today...



The synaptid sea cucumber (Family Synaptidae).



Common sea stars (Archaster typicus), otherwise also called the sand-sifting sea stars as they burrow.



The resident gigantic carpet anemone (Stichodactyla gigantea). Seems that the ocellaris clownfish has left for good. The last time anyone saw them was during the last Team Seagrass monitoring session, according to some of my other fellow volunteers who went for that trip.



We have been seeing noble volutes (Cymbiola nobilis) laying eggs for the past few trips, and I had been wondering when we will see a juvenile one. And finally, we saw one today! You can see the pretty orange-spotted foot by looking at its underside.



Here's the volute viewed from the top. It was hardly wider than my index finger!



Our hunter-seekers also managed to find us an upside-down jellyfish (Cassiopea sp.). Saw lots of smaller ones in December last year, and was really happy to see this bigger one today.



We saw several flatworms (Acanthozoon sp.) today.



Also spotted a few polka dot nudibranch (Jorunna funebris) in the tidal pools.



Managed to find the resident Haddon's carpet anemone (Stichodactyla haddoni) with the anemone shrimps (Periclimenes brevicarpalis) again.



Near the carpet anemone, we spotted a sandfish sea cucumber (Holothuria scabra).



The hunter-seekers found us this huge blue-spotted fantail ray (Taeniura lymma). This is probably the largest I've seen on Semakau so far. The disc was probably close to 30cm wide.



And here's a spider conch (Lambis lambis).



My favourite slug - the gymnodoris nudibranch (Gymnodoris rubropapulosa).



Shawn, the NEA staff, found this huge knobbly sea star (Protoreaster nodosus). Everyone was delighted to see this beautiful seastar which we seldom see at Chek Jawa these days.



As it got darker, the octopuses also started coming out.



And as we were heading back, someone in the spotted another knobbly sea star!



I was telling my fellow CJ guides to watch out for pufferfish hiding under the seagrass, and within minutes, I spotted one!

All too soon, tide was rising and we had to head back to shore.

Hopefully my fellow guides had enjoyed the trip as much as i enjoyed showing them around :)