Entries from March 2010

Argh! My eye!

Date March 30, 2010

Blog volunteer Cindy Tan writes: Picture quality isn’t good but what happened after this photo was interesting… The crab stuck its claw at the ray’s eye (or the space beneath it), then the ray started jerking around… but cos we were “blocking” the way, the poor ray could not escape and ended up thrashing about […]

Blog Log: 7 March 2010

Date March 24, 2010

The last time the Hantu Blog featured pictures shot by our volunteer Jimmy Goh, we received a plethora of feedback saying how brilliant his pictures were. Not only does Jimmy take great pictures, he also has an amazing knack for finding minute and fascinating critters on our reefs! Jimmy likes to refer to the above […]

Do you know about Singapore’s reefs?

Date March 16, 2010

As I was browsing through the stash of old theses in the lab, I came across one entitled “Human Impacts on Coral reefs in Singapore”. After reading through, I became inspired to compare the survey data obtained by William Ho (author of the thesis) with present-day data. Over a span of almost 20 years, will […]

Exploring Intertidal Hantu with Dr. Dan and students from Duke

Date March 15, 2010

After a morning of diving, I stayed on Hantu Island as the divers departed and waited for Ria Tan to arrive at dusk and low tide with Dr. Dan Rittschof, his students from Duke University, and Chris Klock from the Netherlands. Walking down the shore into the now drained out lagoon, it doesn’t look like […]

Blog Log: 28 February 2010

Date March 2, 2010

We had a really packed day at Hantu this weekend. With a full boat of divers, great fair weather, and heaps of critters sprinkled about the reefs. The visibility was very favourable at about 4meters at 15meters. That made finding stuff really easy, and it also saved me from getting claustrophobic! The dive began with […]

Swimmer crabs mating preamble

Date March 2, 2010

A pair of Swimmer crabs (Thalamita sp.) are observed during an inter-tidal walk at Singapore’s Pulau Hantu. The male is the one holding onto the female, and walking about. The male is attempting to access the female’s apron. When that is successful, the two would have graduated from this frontal position, and have their abdomens […]

Tiny Reef Cuttlefish

Date March 2, 2010

A small cuttlefish on the reef of Singapore’s Pulau Hantu, finds safety by sticking close to the coral and prefers to rely on camouflage instead of fleeing when divers approach closely.

Blue spotted fang blenny

Date March 2, 2010

A pair of Blue spotted fang blennies are found frolicking about on the reef of Singapore’s Pulau Hantu. These fish are more commonly observed hiding in crevices, recesses, and discarded bottles on the reefs. It is also referred to as Gammistes Blenny, Striped Fang Blenny, or Striped Poison-Fang Blenny. It has alternating black and yellow […]