Reef Walking

July 7, 2014

Hantu Blog dive guide, Audrey Pang, traded in her wetsuit and fins but kept her booties on for her first ever experiences of discovering our reefs with her feet firmly planted on the ground! She shares her eye opening experience with us and shows us how careful treading along the reef at low tide is possible!

It was a whole new experience for me to peer in between the plentiful hard and soft corals to find the diversity of interesting sea creatures that live on our reefs at Pulau Hantu.

Our group of volunteers saw many sea stars sunning themselves in the shallow pools. Skittish gobies were scooting around nervously when we came too close. Plentiful shell fish of different species were spotted, and a number of sea cucumbers squirted water out of their crevices when our guide lifted them out of their sanctuary to explain the finer points of sea cucumber anatomy .

It was most interesting for me to be able to feel the texture of some corals when water is no longer covering them at low tide. It amazes me to see how these animals that live closer to shore can survive both in and out of the water.

We encountered tiny green eels, a blue spotted stingray, a pair of saddleback anemone fish away from their soft anemone coral home, a pair of octopuses who were not too thrilled at our presence, a pair of nudibranchs (Jorunna Funebris) and a flat worm for the final farewell before we headed back to the mainland.

For me, the best part of the intertidal survey were the souvenirs I brought back with me: photographs of what we saw on the reefs of Pulau Hantu as well as getting to know new like-minded friends with a love for nature and a quest for new experiences.

Do you want to catch a glimpse of our reef encounter? You can, by visiting us at the coming Festival of Biodiversity 2014 @ Vivo City on 12th and 13th of July 2014 from 10am to 10pm. There will be many other volunteers from other nature groups in Singapore who will be showcasing the seldom seen flora and fauna of Singapore, as well as to advise you on how you too can join us on future exciting field trips. Who knows, you could be the next reef-walker!

This intertidal walk at Pulau Hantu was part of Singapore’s Comprehensive Marine Biodiversity Survey organised by National Parks Board’s National Biodiversity Centre on July 1st 2014.

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