Sunrise and we're back on Cyrene Reefs with TeamSeagrass!
Michelle (in red) is back again, and today we are privileged to have Shobana (in green) of the Straits Times.
Also with us is Sam the Straits Times photographer, who wasted no time in taking photos of Cyrene. As well as Weizhen, also with the Straits Times.
While the team set up the transect lines, I brought the Straits Times team for a quick look around.
And we managed to see a little more of the 'Nemo' today. The False clown anemonefish (Amphiprion ocellaris) lives in this Giant sea anemone (Stichodactyla gigantea).
While Shobana and Weizhen find out from Siti more about monitoring seagrasses,
Sam and I went around to have a look at the seagrass meadows.
We saw the special moon snail with the colourful foot.
A spotted black flatworm that I've not seen before.
And a placid Longhorned cowfish (Lactoria cornuta).
As we explored the shores further with the Straits Times team, we saw more stuff.
The nudis put up a good show. With the black and white Jorunna funebris, and a pair of Glossodoris atromarginata.
Lots of Dendrodoris denisoni were encountered today.
And Andy found a Discodoris boholensis.
Michelle and Nor Aishah found this Nepanthia sp. sea star.
And of course, the seagrass meadows are just studded with lots of baby Knobbly sea stars (Protoreaster nodosus).
And how wonderful to come across 'Blondie', the strange almost-knobbly sea star. Is it a new record too? We won't know until the experts come to have a look at it.
Here's a closer look at 'Blondie'.
Shufen finds this sea star (on the left) that looks very much like Pentaceraster mammilatus that TeamSeagrass found in May and was confirmed as a first record for Singapore. 
It looks very different from the usual Knobbly sea star (on the right).
And from the underside, the sea star looks even more like a Pentaceraster mammilatus!
Wow!
On the way back, we noticed a tall ship at the Marina.
Yes indeed, it was the Rainbow Warrior!
After we said goodbye to Melvin, a few of us headed to the ship to have a closer look.
And some of us got to talk to the Captain.
What a great day out! And as usual, Melvin not only brought us there and back safely, but also kept the bad weather at bay. It only started to rain after we got back!
Vyna shares more about the trip on her can you sea me blog
Aug 4, 2008
Cyrene Reefs with TeamSeagrass
Jul 31, 2008
Dredging and dumping at Jurong and at Labrador
SAND MINING AT AREA 1
AND DUMPING AT (i) JURONG ISLAND LNG PROJECT
AND (ii)PASIR PANJANG TERMINAL PROJECT WORKING AREAS
from PORT MARINE NOTICE, NO. 140 OF 2008 dated 31 Jul 2008
This is a revision of Port Marine Notice No 106 of 2008.
The working area at PPT has been revised and working period extended.
With effect from 1 Aug 08 to 31 Jan 09
DREDGING AREA: Area 1, Eastern part of Singapore (wildfilms note: no map included of this area in the Port Notice)
DUMPING AREA (Jurong Island Project – Working Area A & B)
DUMPING AREA (Pasir Panjang Terminal Project – Working Area 6)
24 hours daily including Sundays and Public Holidays.
The reclamation works will involve dredging by Trailer-Suction-Hopper-Dredger (TSHD) at Area 1.
Area 1 extends from the Singapore Port Limit into the westbound lane of the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) within the Singapore Strait.
All dredged materials will be dumped at Jurong Island project (see Working Area A and B of plan Attachment-1) and Jurong Island LNG project (see Working Area C of plan Attachment-1) and Pasir Panjang Terminal project (See Working Area 6 of plan Attachment-2)
Further enquiries relating to the project can be directed to the following Project Co-ordinators:
Jurong Island project and Jurong Island LNG project: Mr. A. Muhaimin at Tel No: 98178572, email: muhaimin@pkdbh.com.sg; and
Pasir Panjang Terminal project: Mr. Y. Abe at Tel No: 9664 8810, email: y.abe@mypenta.net .
Cyrene Reef exhibit at the Raffles Museum from 12 Aug
Singapore’s Natural Heritage - Cyrene Reef
Located west of Labrador Beach, between Pulau Bukom and Jurong Island, Cyrene Reef is situated in the middle of a busy shipping lane. The wonders of this reef are only reveal at low tides. Flaunting a long sand bar flanked by lush sea-grass meadows and lagoons of coral rubble, Cyrene Reef is rich in marine diversity despite its proximity to offshore refineries and other developments.
This small exhibit showcases the beauty of Cyrene Reef and its inhabitants.
from the RMBR news blog
More about Cyrene Reef.
More about the RMBR public gallery and how to get there.
Opening hours: Monday to Friday: 9am-5pm (Closed on Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays)
Location: Block S6, Level 3, National University of Singapore, Science Drive 2
Website: http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/
Contact: 6516-5082
Jul 27, 2008
Another first record for Cyrene Reef?
The cowrie was found by Chay Hoon during our recent trip to Cyrene Reef. Here's her photo of it on her flickr.
Update (28 Jul): Thanks to comments from "Collector" on this blog, ChimCK has posted an amendment to this identification on his flickr
"Previously suspected to be Blasicrura teres and hence another possible new record in Singapore.Ah well, I'm just glad there are special animals on Cyrene, even if they are not first records!
Further reading of literature and comments from knowledgeable collectors suggest that this specimen is more likely to be Erronea walkeri walkeri.
This species has been recorded in Singapore.
Some species of Erronea have similarly looking soft parts (e.g., mantle, foot and papillae)".
Thanks to everyone for contributing to the issue. We sure learn a lot when we discuss with one another!
Jul 25, 2008
Massive dredging off Cyrene Reef begins
DREDGING WORKS FROM JURONG ISLAND TO PULAU ULAR
from PORT MARINE NOTICE NO. 139 of 2008 dated 23 Jul 2008
With effect from 30 Jul 08 to 30 Nov 08, at Selat Pandan, Sinki Fairway and West Keppel Fairway, 24 hours daily, including Sundays and Public Holidays.
Dredging works will be carried out by the grab dredger “Pandora” within the sectors as indicated in the chartlet. The grab dredger will be held in position by a 4-point anchor mooring system within the working area. The anchors will be marked by marker buoys. The safety working zone is a circular area of 200-metre radius centred at the dredger. A safety boat will be deployed in the immediate vicinity of the working area to warn other craft of the project work.
Further enquiries relating to the project can be directed to Mr P Bogers, the project manager, at Tel No: 9139 6094 or email bog@vanoord.com
wildfilms note: besides this dredging work, the massive reclamation project at Pasir Panjang Port is also near Cyrene Reef.
Marine construction off Labrador continues
MARINE SOIL INVESTIGATION AT PASIR PANJANG TERMINAL PHASES 3 AND 4
from PORT MARINE NOTICE NO. 138 of 2008 dated 23 Jul 2008
With effect from 26 Jul 08 to 19 Sep 08 at West Keppel Fairway, 24 hours daily, including Sundays and Public Holidays.
Soil investigation works will be carried out by means of marine boring using jack-up barges. The tug boat will be used for the shifting of the jack-up barges. There are no anchors required for the jack-up barges. The safety zone is a circular area of
30-metre radius centred at the locations of the jack-up barges. A safety boat will be deployed to warn other vessels to keep clear of the barges for the whole duration of the works.
Further enquiries relating to the project can be directed to Mr Y Abe, the project co-ordinator, at Tel: 9664 8810, email: y.abe@mypenta.net.
wildfilms note: this is a continuation of the massive reclamation project to develop Pasir Panjang port.
Jul 22, 2008
Another Cyrene Walk
6am and we're back on Cyrene with new friends.
Another successful landing! Siva has upload a great video clip of the amphibious landing with a 360 degree view of Cyrene Reef, and the taking of the obligatory traditional group photo.
Today our first-time guests are Ryan and Edwin from the "I Want to Go to Cyrene" facebook group who submitted this post about Cyrene, and who learnt about Cyrene at Reel Revolution. And Aubrey and Jia Chien participants of the Reel Revolution effort. As well as Mingjuan and Chai Joo of Cicada Tree Eco Place. We are also joined by James from NParks, and Siva and Airani from the Raffles Museum as well as of course the Naked Hermit Crabs.
Just a few steps onto Cyrene and we are already fascinated by the sand dollars and sea stars at our feet!
With help from Robert and Andy, we soon find the Knobbly sea stars and long-spined black sea urchin, amidst the colourful colonial anemones and other creatures of the coral rubble.
As Andy shared about the sea urchin, I desperately hunted for the Nemo anemone.
And I found the nem! And today, we saw a little bit of the tail of the anemonefish! Ryan asked lots of interesting questions about anemonefishes too.
The young ladies from Reel Revolution are diligently recording all our finds!
And Jun walks ALLLL the way from the other end to show the group the same cushion star that we looked at yesterday.
She shared about this special star as well as the white sea urchin that were plentiful at the area where she was at.
Meanwhile, Andy has found a carpet anemone with a pair of anemone shrimps!
We all take a closer look at it and at first it's hard to spot the shrimps as they are rather transparent.
This is the mama shrimp. She is bigger and has more white spots.
We come across another sandy patch full of common sea stars! Behind us in the shipping channel, a huge ship transporting cars passes by.
We quickly had a look at the reef before the tide turned. And Mingjuan spots a cuttlefish! The deeper water is full of hard and soft corals and all kinds of other strange creatures.
The hard corals are found even quite high up on the shore among the seagrasses.
The seagrasses near our landing point is just teeming with baby Knobbly sea stars!
I couldn't help taking lots of photos of them.
They come in all colours and patterns!
The seagrass meadows are really a nursery for all kinds of animals. These are the white ribbon-like egg masses of possibly a nudibranch.
And another egg mass with tiny coils of eggs, laid on a seagrass blade.
We saw a really tiny butterflyfish! This is the tiniest one I've ever seen.
And among the seagrasses, a Blue dragon nudibranch (Pteraeolidia iantinia).
Further along, Chee Kong spots this small Melibe nudibranch! Andy also spots the big Dendrodoris that we saw yesterday, and Chee Kong finds a purple Nepanthia sea star.
As we gather to go home, the team share this special find by Chay Hoon.
I have no idea what it is! It may be another first record! We'll have to wait as the experts are consulted. Fabulous! (Update: Chee Kong just updated on the identity of this fabulous snail).
DHI is on the reef for this low tide. They swim back to their boat! I always tell our party that if they are late for the tide, they will have to do this too.
On the way back, we take a quick look at the activities on the shores of the West Coast.
Huge oil rigs are being worked on.
As well as a really enormous ship with strange contraptions on it.
I think this is what they call a 'rust bucket', being towed into the working area of the West Coast shore.
And the Polytechnic people were out on the water today.
It was great weather again, thanks to Melvin. Unfortunately, Melvin is not feeling too well today. We hope he gets better soon as we can't go to Cyrene without him!
Over the last two days, the "I've Been to Cyrene" buttons were launched!
Everyone who goes (and survives to return) gets one!
If you want to go to Cyrene, simply join the blogging contest! Hope to see you on Cyrene!
More about what was seen on Cyrene on Kok Sheng's wonderful creations blog with really gorgeous photos of the sunrise, more stars and other exciting finds.
