Pulau Hantu Walk on May Day

It's May Day, and we were back on Pulau Hantu for an intertidal walk. Once again, I was one of the hunter-seekers, and once again, was so busy searching for things that I only took a few photos.

Here're some of the highlights that I managed to photograph.

There were lots of sand-sifting sea stars (Archaster typicus) in the sandy lagoon, and this rather special one had 6 instead of the usual 5 arms!

There were lots of fan worms (Sabellastarte indica in the sandy lagoon too. The feather-like tentacles were used to collect plankton and other tiny organic particles in the water.

I also found a pair of Chromodoris lineolata nudibranchs. "Nudibranch" means naked gills, refering to the flower-like gills on the back of most species.

Stinging nettles (Chrysaora sp.) were in season, and we saw them every where!

The highlight of the most Pulau Hantu trips are the red feather stars (Order Comatulida). They look like balls of feathers in water!

CH found this cute little pygmy squid (Idiosepius sp.) towards the end of the walk.

I was rather happy to find this acanthozoon flatworm (Acanthozoon sp.), as somehow we hardly see them for the past few trips.

Yet another highlight of the trip was this very venomous stonefish (Synanceia horrida), found by LK who just stepped on one half a year ago and had to spend about a week in the hospital.

On the whole, it was again a very fulfilling trip with lots of things to see! :)