October 25, 2009 What’s going on beneath the water’s surface on a Friday night? LOTS!
Hantu Blog volunteers, Peimin, Cindy, Chay Hoon, Abby and myself plunge into the dark waters of Singapore for a spectacular wildlife experience! Here’s a sample of our experience in a tiny video clip. Pictures coming soon!
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October 23, 2009 
Presented by Professor Michael Kingsford, Head of the School of Marine and Tropical Biology, JCU Australia
Synopsis:
Global climate change is the biggest issue facing resource managers and poses a great challenge to businesses. Unless business adapts to changing resources, gives greater attention to sustainable behaviour and reduces the use of fossil fuel then there are risks. Here I review physical changes that are predicted to happen over the next 100 years, the impact of change on marine ecosystems, challenges to fisheries managers and novel approaches to dealing with climate change. Ocean pH, water temperature, currents, nutrient levels, strength of storms and sea levels are all projected to change over the next 100 years as a result of global warming. The impact of these physical stressors will vary by region and among types of organisms. Plants and animals are affected from the level of cell to entire ecosystems. I will present data from temperate and tropical waters of the Pacific on how patterns of growth of fishes and ranges will change. Even fishes that appear resistant to change can be affected by the collapse of key ecosystem functions. Coral reefs, the foundation of fisheries throughout the Pacific, are vulnerable to change and experiments demonstrate that the risk to reefs is greatest where exploitation of fishes is at a high level. Risk is not limited to the coastal belt, many islands of the Pacific are dependent on tuna for protein – changing oceanic currents can take fish away from traditional fishing grounds and nearby infrastructure for processing (e.g., canneries). Control of CO2 is still the biggest issue to reduce climate change. Innovative ways of making carbon neutral fuels and reducing methane emissions is working toward a solution and generating opportunity.
Bio: Michael J Kingsford
Michael is the Head of the School of Marine and Tropical Biology at James Cook University. The School is a recognized world leader in tropical marine science. He has been President of the Australian Coral Reef Society and Director of One Tree Island Research Station. He has published extensively on the ecology of reef fishes, jellyfishes, biological oceanography and climate change. His projects have encompassed a range of latitudes and he has edited two books on tropical and temperate ecology. A major focus of his research has been on connectivity of reef fish populations, environmental records in corals and fishes and deadly irukandji jellyfishes. In addition to research and leadership, he teaches undergraduate students and supervises many postgraduate students.
When: 29th October 2009, 07.00pm to 08.30pm
Where: Block A01-01
James Cook University Australia, Singapore Campus
600 Upper Thomson Road, Singapore 577421
Admission is Free! Light refreshments will be served.
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October 21, 2009 
Coming through Singapore for one day only, en route to the Indonesian archipelago for an expedition, Terry Gosliner, author of books like “Indo Pacific Nudibranchs and Sea Slugs”, and “Coral Reef Animals of the Indo-Pacific: Animal Life from Africa to Hawaii Exclusive of the Vertebrates”, wriggled out of his busy schedule for just 4 hours out at sea with the Hantu Bloggers. (Above: Damselfish dart about the reef crest)
Nudibranch enthusiast and Blog volunteer Chay Hoon tagged along to ask some questions about her fave marine creature, but also found the time to get her book autographed by the Curator of the California Academy of Sciences (Above).
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October 21, 2009 With the outgoing currents blasting through the channels around and between Pulau Hantu yesterday, we strayed only as far as the reef crest and enjoyed some local marine life in the shallow waters.
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October 11, 2009 
When you surface from a dive at Hantu, the first things you see are oil refineries and industry all around. Surfacing from a dive at Keppel Bay, you’re surrounded not only by some of the most expensive real-estate on the island, but also by cranes and sky scrapers! Who’d have thought just putting your face under the water could yield such beautiful images!
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October 9, 2009 
Well, if you were at Siti M Yaakub’s talk about sea grasses this evening, you would’ve heard something else! Turns out sea grass beds are worth about ten times more to the global economy than rain forests! Siti’s enthusiastic presentation made learning about seagrasses fun and fascinating! With the simple diagram above (which Siti claims she took a mere hour to draw!) she managed to introduce seagrass habitat, and the habitats it interacts with, in very palatable manner! I learned that there’s a new record of seagrass in Singapore, Halophila decipiens, that looks similar to Halophila ovalis but grows in deeper waters. After a quick chat with Siti after the talk, the Hantu Blog looks forward to diving with her at Pulau Hantu to see if we can find this fuzzy-leafed marine plant!
Siti also included interesting facts with the help of the above map of Singapore from the mid 1900s. The map showed that before major land reclamation, what is now East Coast Park used to be a sea grass sand flat! Imagine what it must’ve looked like to early biologists and explorers! It must’ve been crawling with sea turtles, sea stars and seahorses! Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Biology, Events, Seminars, Wildlife Trade 2 Comments »
October 8, 2009 
Diving on a weekday means you pretty much have the entire island to yourself. With just a pair of divers with me, it was even better because we could extend our dives up to 70 minutes without making anyone else (but our skipper!) wait.
With very favourable 4m visibility this Wednesday morning, we explored the path reefs off Pulau Hantu as well as some of its very busy fringing reefs. This season, the sargassum seaweed (which is actually a macro algae) has been growing rapidly. The seaweed now extends 6m from the reef crest all the way up to the surface. Hopefully the approaching monsoon season will rip some of them off and allow the coral some competition for light! Read the rest of this entry »
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October 8, 2009 
On my way to Pulau Hantu on Oct 7, Wednesday, I came across a fisherman who’d just returned from his overnight fishing trip off St. John’s island. He’d brought a small group of local recreational fishermen out to sea to fish as well.
Amongst his catch were two Oriental sweetlips Plectorhinchus orientalis, 4 juvenile and 1 adult Coral catsharks Atelomycterus marmoratus (two of which were still alive), and an Orange spotted grouper Epinephelus coioides.
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October 7, 2009 A “Bruda whale” died after it became entangled in a fishing net. According to Phuket reports, the animal was two or three months old, measured 4.5 metres, weighed 600 kilos and had deep cuts from the netting.
Photo from Phuketwan NewsIn Phuket, many turtles have been forced ashore this monsoon season. They are either dead, or missing a flipper, usually one of the large front ones. So many turtles are being washed up that it no longer makes news.
And the cause is almost always the same: fishing nets. Read the rest of this entry »
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October 7, 2009 Prof Helene Marsh is giving a talk about dugongs later this week!
And a prelude to Prof Marsh’s talk is Siti Maryam Yaakub of TeamSeagrass. Siti will share about seagrasses of Singapore and the efforts being made to better understand manage these valuable ecosystems. Read the rest of this entry »
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