Semakau Walk on 23 Jun 2008

Went to Semakau Landfill on Monday with a group of Dunman High students doing a module on Coastal Protection. Finally, I got to be the hunter seeker, and thus had the time to take some proper photos with slightly better compostions this time round.

Just did an entry on Semakau recently, and so this one will just be a quick listing of some of the things we saw.


We got to witness a lovely sun rise while walking from the old Pulau Sakeng to the old Pulau Semakau.


Again, we managed to find what I called the "Big Five" sea cucumbers. The above is a long synaptid sea cucumber (Family Synaptidae) among the seagrasses.


The ocellated sea cucumber (Stichopus ocellatus).


The dragonfish sea cucumber (Stichopus horrens).


The stonefish sea cucumber (Actinopyga lecanora).


The sandfish sea cucumber (Holothuria scabra).


We got to meet some of the stars of Semakau too. The sandy area near the seagrass meadows had lots of sand-sifting sea stars (Archaster typicus).


And nearer to the coral reef crest, I found this orange knobbly sea star (Protoreaster nodosus).


And not too far away, there is another pinkish red one.


As the tide was quite low, we were able to see huge patches of lovely hard corals.


And there were lots of soft corals too.


We have been seeing many of this jellyfish for the past few months.


This black lumpy thing is actually a sea anemone from the family Aliciidae.


Here's another look at it with its tentancles out. These anemones supposedly can give anyone who touches them a nasty sting.


Saw quite a few noble volutes (Cymbiola nobilis), and one of them just finish laying her eggs!


I found several black phyllid nudibranchs (Phyllidiella nigra) too.


Found this scallop (Chlamys sp.) high and dry.


Here's another key attraction of a Semakau - a fluted giant clam (Tridacna squamosa).


Found quite a number of sea anemones, but unfortunately none with the clownfish. Most of them had anemone shrimps (Periclimenes brevicarpalis) on them though.


And some how, even though it was already quite bright, there were lots of flatworms!

Was certainly glad that the weather stayed good and we managed to find some many interesting organisms :P