Labrador Rocky Shore

2nd year NUS ecology students study Labrador Rocky Shore

2010-04-28T12:27:00.001+08:00

I introduced an ecology practical at Labrador Rocky Shore with undergraduates in the new second year life science module (LSM2251) to study the diversity and zonation there. I realised almost all the students were unfamiliar with the fauna there and when I checked, I found that about 80% were visiting the park for the first time.

In addition to its characteristic crabs and mollusc, Labrador Rocky Shore is a great place to study marine algae. The animal they were most amazed to encounter was of course, the octopus. Happily there was one individual most nights to fascinate students.

Since there are about 100 students in the class each semester, I split them into two sessions of 50 and divide each session into groups of about 10 each. These groups are then spaced out widely along the rocky shore to reduce impact to any one site. We sent the first two batches (last October and February) and have a better idea of what we can achieve with the class and advise to provide about the reports prior to them writing it.

In future years the students will study the community with the use of Simpson's index to contribute to long-term monitoring of the rocky shore. This will mean boning up during the pre-field trip lab session. It will have to be more rigorous exercise than this year with a greater array of specimens of typical fauna from the Raffles Museum so that they have a grasp of identification before the actual field trip. The intention is to contribute to the monitoring of the rocky shore community which NParks has welcomed.

NParks: Labrador rocky shore gate permanently closed from 10th June 2009

2009-07-02T20:29:00.001+08:00

International Coastal Cleanup Singapore coordinator Andy Dinesh alerted me about a notice about closure of the gate leading to the beach and rocky shore. A check with the NParks webpage for Labrador Nature Reserve reveals the following statement (under the section, "History and Attractions"):

*The rocky beach is a fragile marine ecosystem which needs preservation. Gate to the rocky beach will be permanently locked from 10 June 09 onwards.

**For group visit, please write to Nparks_mailbox@nparks.gov.sg with the title 'Application for Visiting Labrador beach' , and furnish following details. Date and time of visit, no. of people, activity detail, organisation name, address and tel no.; contact person's name and h/p no.

Labrador Villa kopi shops are all gone

2009-01-14T12:23:00.001+08:00

See "The Labrador kopi shops are no more."

Photo by Kenneth Pinto

A Tale of Survival (2005 paper)

2008-11-20T14:08:00.002+08:00

Dolphin carcass on Labrador beach

2008-09-08T14:11:00.000+08:00

Read the full report on Habitatnews - "Dolphin carcass on Labrador beach," by N. Sivasothi. Habitatnews, 08 Aug 2008. - link.

Maiden Labrador Walk!

2008-03-17T13:58:00.004+08:00

8th March 2008 marks the maiden walk @ Labrador Park with Toddycats! Guides for the day were nature veteran Sivasothi, ever-passionate Oi Yee and Justin...

Divided into 3 groups, the visitors, mostly members of Toddycats, were introduced to the wonderful, yet fragile, wildlife of our last rocky shore habitat on mainland Singapore... The following are the pictorial updates of the event....

In summary, the Labrador walk was indeed a success! First-timers to the place were marvelled by the beauty of the place, while other participants re-experienced the wonderful 'hidden treasures' found on our Nature Reserves....

Note: For those interested to find out more about the Labrador Project under toddycats or want to be part of us, we want to hear from you. Please email us at: labradorpark.tc@gmail.com

Revival of Labrador Project!

2008-01-13T21:16:00.000+08:00

Ever since the newspaper article on 29th Oct 2007 featuring the Singapore Polytechnic's SEACILs project. Some wildlife bloggers, upon discovery that the debris they found on the intertidal of Labrador shores were linked to their project, began blogging extensively about their concerns for Labrador habitat.

This subsequently led to the Straits times article on 26th November 2007 titled: 'Nature lovers fear coral project will cause damage'.

Despite all the noise made by the 'nature lovers', there was no improvement in the debris condition of Labrador. Instead, more debris from other sources began appearing as well, which further dampened the natural landscape of Labrador. Apparently situation in Labrador worsen by the day...... until this year...

During the last visit on 8th January 2008, some of the concrete debris began to disappear from the site, apparently removed by some unknown groups. This led to an entry titled: 'A new Hope', showing optimism for the once-dire-state of Labrador. Although there is still much debris to be removed from the shore, the removal of these debris, though may appeared insignificant, do signals a starting point for return of the former glory of Labrador Nature Reserve.

Riding on this new hope, the Toddycats of RMBR has reinstated the Labrador Project with the following aims:

To raise awareness to the public of our rocky shore in Singapore
To interest them in the conservation efforts, as well as looking out for our nature reserves
To create a continuation in imparting nature awareness through training of guides etc

Hence, a team, made up of nature lovers, is formed to fulfil the aims. In the near future, the team will conduct walks, cleanup sessions, training sessions and other events in relation Labrador Nature Reserves. Therefore, look out this space for more updates!

For more information/enquires on the Labrador Project, please email to: labradorpark.tc@gmail.com

Other blogs featuring Labrador:

wildfilms

reddotbeachbum

Justin's dive adventures

Under protection?

2008-01-08T22:55:00.000+08:00

Haven't been back to Labrador in a looooooong time and I realize how much I miss it...

Today the nerites were out in full force after a short shower... the colours.. just amazing

a mollusc threesome

ovalis galore

more seagrass
-

somehow halimedas never fail to amuse me.

its just so... calcified. hahaha. if i make any sense

can u spot the two crabs?

Yes Labrador is the ONLY rocky shore left on mainland Singapore. And it is SUPPOSEDLY gazetted as a nature reserve.. and yet.. we see all this...

an abandoned motor, tyres, fish traps, a failed artificial reef project, neglect of construction near the cofferdam, an idol found floating on the shore, more rubbish.. sigh. depressing.

doesn't it make you think that we're not doing enough for this 'nature reserve'? why make it a reserve in the first place if its not going to receive any proper protection?

Re: Large Debris on Labrador

2007-11-08T12:21:00.000+08:00

having not visited Labrador in a looong time, I was appalled to read this entry on the wildfilms blog. Perfect example of a project gone wrong. Looking forward to seeing what Singapore Poly has to say about this.

Effects of shore height and visitor pressure at Labrador Beach

2007-07-31T12:35:00.001+08:00

"Effects of shore height and visitor pressure on the diversity and distribution of four intertidal taxa at Labrador beach, Singapore." By Danwei Huang, Peter A. Todd, Loke Ming Chou, Kheng Hui Ang, Pei Ya Boon, Liyan Cheng, Han Ling & Wan-Jean Lee, 2006. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 54(2): 477-484. [pdf available]

Abstract - To date, the majority of research on the rocky intertidal has focused on temperate rocky shore communities whereas study sites in the tropics have been relatively distant from the equator. We examined four key groups of marine organisms, i.e. macroalgae, anthozoans, decapods and gastropods, in relation to shore height and visitor pressure, at Labrador beach, Singapore (just 1°16.0'N).

To reveal any vertical zonation the shore was divided into four 10m-wide zones, parallel to shore, approximately spanning high to low spring tide marks. To determine the effects of visitor pressure, the shore was also divided horizontally into three 60m long sectors; representing a gradient in distance from the public entrance to the beach. Sampling data from quadrats positioned randomly within these zones and sectors were converted into Shannon-Wiener and Margalef diversity index scores.

The number of visitors to each horizontal sector was monitored, and the substrate composition in the sampled areas was assessed using point intercept transects. A total of 28 genera of macroalgae, 14 genera of anthozoans, 20 genera of decapods and 25 genera of gastropods were identified.

Diversity scores for macroalgae, anthozoans and decapods were highly significantly different among the different shore heights, with the highest diversity found in the lower shore zones. Anthozoan diversity in the sector closest to the entrance of the beach, where the highest numbers of visitors were recorded, was significantly lower than the sectors further away. It requires further work, however, to identify the extent to which visitor pressure may affect marine organism diversity and distribution in the intertidal zone at Labrador Park.

This was published last year but we forgot to highlight it here. I met Danwei in the corridor yesterday and we talked about the blog and it came up, so here it is!

Labrador revisited

2006-12-08T23:18:00.000+08:00

Went to explore Labrador on Tuesday and Thursday this week, and it was the first time I'd been there in eons! The last time I was there was definitely before the work on the coffer dam started.

From the lookout point, although the menacing presence of the dredging equipment loomed on the landscape accompanied by the ugly brown fence slicing across Labrador, things actually looked pretty good, as the receeding tide revealed pretty much the usual stuff still around.

View from the lookout point. Dredging platforms now line the coast, and the coffer dam can be seen sticking out on the right of the picture.

Close up of dredging. The huge clampy thing sure looks nasty. It must be as big as a bus!

On the shore, all the usual suspects were out... sea spiders, snapping shrimp, the hairy crabs, juvenile catfish, the snails and hermit crabs, Copper-banded butterfly fish, filefish, loads of zoanthids, all hanging out amidst the rocks and the green stuff. Also quite a number of slugs and slimy things - Elysia, a big Discodoris boholiensis, Pteraeolidia ianthina, the blue dragon, and Acanthozoon, the spotted flatworm. It was good to see them still in action, especially with all the construction going on. And it's good that so far there doesn't seem to have been any increase in the silt, from just looking at it.

Sea spider!

Somehow at the end of the year we always see the Bryopsis blooming on some of the Southern shores, and with it comes my favourite nudibranchs! This is Elysia ornata, one of the green leafy sap-suckers.

Just before the sun set and we were about to call it a day, Ria's sharp eyes spotted this adorable pair moving amongst the Thalassia.

For photos of the other marine critters we saw, view Budak's blog.

Just before we left, we chanced upon one of Labrador's spectacular sunsets, blocked by the ominous construction works! It's all well and good to consider economic development, but sometimes you really have to ask yourself, at what price this development? I suppose it's all a matter of weighing the benefits against the disadvantages. Hopefully one day the benefits of preserving local habitats and biodiversity will become more important than the benefits gained from any further economic development.

Many thanks to Ria for providing the photos of the dredging!

Special crabs at Labrador

2006-01-28T21:12:00.000+08:00

It was crabs galore at Labrador's rocky shore today. First spotted, by sharp-eyed Ria Tan of Wild Singapore, was a rarely seen moon crab, which are far more common on the Northern shores. It was swimming into a patch of seaweed when spotted. We placed it on the sand, where it promptly buried itself completely, presumably a way of hiding from both predators and potential prey.

The moon crab Matuta lunaris has legs which are flattened into paddles. They use their legs to dig themselves efficiently into the sand.

Next, someone else spotted a leaf moving amidst a clump of immobile leaves. Curious, she flipped it over to find a leaf porter crab hiding underneath! It did not seem to appreciate its sudden change in spatial orientation, however, and quickly flipped itself back under the leaf using its long spindly legs. We quickly placed it back into the pool of water, where it resumed floating around, looking like just another leaf.

Neodorippe callida, the leaf porter crab.

The most exciting find of the day was a pair of coastal horseshoe crabs, another rarely-seen animal in our Southern Shores. Horseshoe crabs are fascinating creatures, which I find really awe-inspiring to observe. They are known as living fossils because they have been around for a really long time (even before the dinosaurs!), and actually are more closely related to spiders than the true crabs of today. This is obvious when you look at their body plan, which is kind of alien to anything else I've ever seen. For example, they have pairs of walking legs sticking out at both sides underneath their helmet-like shells. These legs are used to grind up food as they walk, after which the food is passed into the mouth, located between the second pair of legs. The coolest fact about the horseshoe crab (for me) is that such an ancient creature has such an important and unique use in today's advanced medical industry. The blood of a horseshoe crab contains a medically important substance that is vital in testing iv drugs and medical equipment for bacterial contaminations, without which there would be no easy way of determining if something is sterile. For more information about these truly amazing animals, see Ria's horseshoe crab factsheet.

The pair of horseshoe crabs (Tachypleus gigas), one of 2 species in Singapore. They were spotted behind a pile of boulders on Labrador - the female was trying to crawl out over it with the male firmly attached on her back with his claspers, and may have gotten stranded there as the tide went out.

Here they are again, after we carried them out to the sand. The male is still tightly hanging on, on the back of the female. Horseshoe crabs are harmless, their tails are used for steering and helping them right themselves.

The alien-looking underside of a horseshoe crab - the mouth is located between the legs (see the hairy area?).

Many thanks to Ria for the photographs!

Another world

2005-08-01T20:31:00.000+08:00

To most visitors who rarely venture further out, most of Labrador's beach would seem to be comprised of either seagrass lagoon or ugly grey rocks/rubble. But sometimes at the super low tides, the corals further away from the shore are exposed. Labrador's beach slopes at a gradient, so lower tides means a much larger area of the intertidal is exposed.

This post was a long time in the making, and a few people must be credited for their invaluable help despite being terribly busy people with other things to do. Firstly, Ria Tan of WildSingapore, who has been graciously sharing her lovely photos. Also the coral "gurus" of the NUS Marine Biology Lab for helping with the tricky IDs - Jani, TL and Z.

Ok. Now let's get down to the corals. :)

First things first. Corals....animal/vegetable/mineral?

The answer? A bit of all 3! Or at least the hard corals are anyway. The picture above shows a hard coral, Goniopora sp..

Here's a closeup of the same coral:

You can see some of the polyps sticking out (those are the fuzzy bits that look like flowers). That's the animal part. Corals are very simple animals, kind of like inverted jellyfish, which are essentially bags of water. Since they both have stinging cells, they are grouped together under the phylum Cnidaria, which comes from the greek word "cnidos", meaning stinging nettle. Each polyp is an individual, but most clone themselves to form a colony (ending up with the big structure you see on the beach). Some hard corals, like the mushroom corals, consist of one individual polyp.

Coral polyps are actually transparent, so why are there so many colours and forms?

Two different types of Psammocora.

Many tiny symbiotic algae called zooxanthellae live in the tissues of coral polyps and are responsible for giving the corals their distinctive colour. In return for living space, they photosynthesise and serve as an energy source for their coral hosts. That's the vegetable part!

Hard corals also secrete a skeleton of calcium carbonate - mineral! That's what fills the space between individual polyps, and also what coral reefs are made of. The polyps live in holes in the skeleton. New polyps can grow on top of old dead skeleton and this is how corals "grow".

Acropora and close-up.
Corals are quite hard to tell apart. They need to be cut up and stared at under the microscope. But there are some general shapes that can be use to describe corals. The most commonly seen type of Acropora is the branching form (as opposed to the Goniopora shown above that is round and kind of boulder-like). It's quite distinctive since the corallites (the skeleton of an individual polyp) are cup-shaped.

Pocillopora and close-up.
Pocillopora is branching too.

Goniopora and close-up.
The long-tentacled Goniopora is also quite distinct. The polyps retract into the skeleton when you touch them. I always wonder where it all fits.

This one looks like a maze:

Platygyra and close-up.

Here's where the confusing part sets in. Most genera have many different forms.

Many different Montipora!

Corals are really important to the animals that live in, on and around them. They form reefs that become a unique ecosystem, providing a habitat for many marine animals (fish, crabs, shrimp, echinoderms, slugs, worms, the list goes on). Think of the trees of a rainforest. Like trees, they take a really long time to grow. So the next time you walk on the intertidal, do look out for these beautiful creatures, feel free to take photographs, but treat them with care. And please do not take them home!

Frogfish on Labrador!

2005-07-25T23:18:00.000+08:00

Wandered right to the end of the beach today, near the mouth of the monsoon drain. There are many seaweeds and a whole patch of Halophila growing there. Near the big mattress-like bags, a nice surprise awaited.

Frogfish! (Lophiocharon trisignatus) It was doing a good impression of a rock, fuzzy greenish-brown outline enabling it to blend in perfectly into its surroundings.

The spot-tailed frogfish is distinguished by the dark-margined translucent spots on its tail.

In addition, frogfishes also have...

a lure on the top of their heads attached to a fishing rod-like structure which they use to attract prey with. Lures of different species of frogfish resemble different types of food animals like worms or small shrimps.

They also have modified pectoral and anal fins which they use to "walk" on the ground.

Thanks Ria, for the photos. Was too busy trying to film the fish at the time. ;)

People on Labrador

2005-07-24T17:38:00.000+08:00

When there is a spring low, many groups of people can usually be found walking around on the intertidal. Wildfilms and wildlife photography enthusiasts can sometimes be found with their tons of equipment aimed determinedly at some unfortunate creature of interest.

From left: Hanpeng, Tom and Dr Chua EK.

We also saw Prof Leo Tan, who wrote the BP Seashore guidebook and co-wrote Rhythm of the Sea, THE book about Labrador's Beach. A very inspiring man, he's a fount of knowledge about the things that can be found on the intertidal (and many other things, I'll bet). I found him to be a really approachable person who liked to share interesting stories and facts about the things on the shore. I also found out later that he's the man who saved Labrador's fabulous rocky shore years back when they were planning to reclaim it.

Also on the beach were a group of SAJC students on a biology field trip. Prof Leo was happy to see them, as he'd just told me earlier that it would be good to get as many nature enthusiasts and volunteers as possible to visit the beach regularly. I guess a sense of ownership is the best way to ensure that the wealth of amazing creatures on this small strip of rocky beach is continued to be protected.

Everyone looks at something interesting that has just been found.

And it is indeed interesting! Shrimps are wonderful, colourful creatures to look at, and this is the very first time I've seen the commensal shrimp, Periclimenes brevicarpalis, on the carpet anemones at Labrador. They usually occur in pairs. This is the larger of the two, probably the female.

Other interesting things spotted were...

octopusses...

the striped eel-tailed catfish Plotosus lineatus which has been spotted regularly at labrador over the last few months. They seem to be growing happily, and are now about 12cm long.

The seahorses from the last visit were still hanging around the same patch of Montipora.

Many thanks to Ria Tan of Wildsingapore for sharing all the photos! :)

Super Low at Labrador

2005-06-29T09:59:00.000+08:00

The Wildfilms crew visited Labrador at super low last saturday. I was unfortunately unable to join them, as we were doing a Reefwalk out at Kusu (which was pretty amazing as well, but what things I missed!). Fortunately, Ria has kindly offered to share her photographs of some of the fascinating things exposed by the -0.1m tide. All photographs in this post were taken by her. Thanks, Ria! :)

They found FIVE seahorses on Labrador.

AND a HAIRY filefish! So the hairy crabs are not the only hairy things on Labrador. Filefish, also known as leatherjackets, have skin that is quite rough to touch, hence their name (file as in nail file, I guess - but i doubt the fish themselves would make good nailfiles! :p). As you can see, this one is covered by thick black hairs. He's quite colourful underneath too, blue-green all over.

And then there's the rather unusual assortment of small slimy things (which I seldom see on Labrador)...

A flatworm.

And some slugs! I'm still trying to find out what the tiny snot-green one on the left is, but the one on the right has been spotted quite frequently all over Singapore's shores recently. Glossodoris artromarginata is pale yellow, with the distinctive frilly black margin. The gills on its back swivel back and forth in the water, appearing to rotate. When startled or when picked up by an overly curious Homo sapiens, it can withdraw its gills and rhinopores (that's the 2 black things on its head, which are used to sense food or chemical signatures in the water) into its body. How cute is that? :)

The superlow tide also revealed some lovely corals at the fringe, which are usually still covered by water. Ria got some fantastic shots of them. More will be written about them soon, so keep checking back!

Labrador's all time favourite crab - the hairy crab

2005-06-08T07:11:00.000+08:00

pilumnus-labrador-may2005[wyt]
Originally uploaded by habitatnews.

Pilumnus vespertilio is also called the Common hairy crab or the Teddy-bear crab! And when I say favourite, I mean as in personality and not palatability, so stop salivating.

Unlike the vicious swimming crabs or teh aggressive grapsids and the feeling rock crabs, the hairy crab seems to be the most gentle-natured of all the crabs in Labrador and our favourite!

After some initial efforts to move away, it will eventually rest in your palm, usually evicting squeals of "how sweet" from visitors to Labrador.

It is not a good idea to think of eating this small crab since other than seaweed, it may eat toxic zoanthids (colonial anemones) which can make this crab mildly poisonous.

It looks hairy because the body is covered by long hairs. These are slightly suspended when submerged in water and trap sediments, allowing the crab to blend into its surroundings by breaking the body outline.

It is slow moving and rarely seen unless you know where to look - under rocks in a specific zone along the shoreline. Yueat Tin had a look last month (May 2005) and took this photo.

Airani will be bringing the crew of the Malay magazine programme 647 to Labrador tomorow (09 Jun 2005) and promised to show them her favourite crab, the teddy-bear crab, so its going to get famous!

Morning visit

2005-04-13T14:04:00.000+08:00

Finally, a chance to visit again after a long hiatus. The posts were a lovely read in the meantime. :)

The water at Labrador has been amazing lately. At low tide, just a bit higher up from the choppy waves near the corals, it's so nice and clear, even walking around chasing a pack of camera-shy catfish doesn't seem to muck it up much.

Juvenile striped eel-tailed catfish (Plotosus lineatus) - if you look closely you might even be able to see the barbels!

Near the rocks, an octopus was spotted trying to eat a swimming crab. When we found him, the poor crab was still moving. The octopus was mostly inside his hole, except for tentacles sticking out, but for a moment his eyes and siphon were clearly visible as he tried to consume the crab, which proved to be a bit big to drag into the hole. Unfortunately he spotted us peering at him and decided to retreat behind his half eaten meal.

Octopus hiding under breakfast. Can you spot the sucker discs of the octopus?

Another crab, this time alive. The red egg crabs are quite common on Labrador, found around the corals where the water is a bit deeper and usually quite choppy.

Red Egg Crab (Atergatis integerrimus)

The colonial anemones have been back since my last few visits. They are of all colours and cover certain areas of the beach. Really beautiful to look at. But not to touch. Anemones are stuck in the same group as jellyfish and coral. They are called cnidarians because they have stinging cells which can leave a painful sting! I'm surprised there haven't been photos of these amazing creatures around.

Pretty brown ones. Quite hard to photograph due to moving water surface.

And the solitary anemones which seem to be quite commonly found on Labrador as well. This one looks a bit different from the usual ones spotted..

Quite strange. No one seems to know what they are..so for the moment, unknown anemone.

concrete beach

2005-04-12T20:18:00.000+08:00

think there's nothing on the seawall? look closer...

monodontas

seaslugs (They're well camouflaged. At least 5 of them in this pic)

mermaid's fan (padina)

you'll be surprised to find species that are seldom found on the natural shore on the seawall instead. The star limpet is one of them. These guys are 3 times bigger than a normal false limpet.

With more areas becoming urbanized, natural shores are rapidly replaced by artificial structures (If you can find old pictures of labrador beach, you'll see that the park and seawall replaced a part of the natural beach). These structures have the potential to affect the biodiversity of intertidal environments and it may be worth your time to take a walk along the seawall and compare what you can find there (there are more species than those shown above) as compared to the natural beach.

working late has its rewards...

tread lightly and you'll realise the best things are for free
let the sea breeze caress your hair, makes you feel carefree
standstill and listen to the music of the sea
let the waves around your ankels cool your tired feet
the sky changes colours and golden rays retreat
you'll be sad to leave but good memories are yours to keep

Long live the snails

2005-04-10T18:32:00.000+08:00

Ya as ya'll can see i'm running out of titles to use. anyway.. back to our pix..

unknown... mitra? had diffculty IDing (even for snail expert reuben) coz din take it back as a specimen. i mean, what if it's the only one left in labrador right? didn't see any similar ones after that day. Look at the intricate patterns... ok this isn't a good shot but... u can squint and see... so pretty!

next off is this nice green littoraria... fat and shiny...

and another one... this one was found on high shore (the sandy area)

we have strombus... the genus of gong gong.. you know the snails that they serve for supper? Sad to say I think it's endangered now... this is the only one I saw. The rest are empty shells. So you can imagine how excited I was to see a live one! You can't see it from this picture but they have really sharp knife-like operculums that help them turn. Read about it at wildsingapore.com

Next off, we have another unknown. Ok my ID sux. (anyone who knows the IDs pls do inform me) Think this one is an oyster but experts told me that it could jolly well be just another bivalve. The only way to know is... chisel off the whole thing and bring it back to the lab to look under the microscope.. which, I obviously did not do.

That's it for now. Won't be hearing from molluscs soon coz i have run out of clear enuff photos to upload. :) NOT that there are only so few types of molluscs on labrador but I only took a few shots. but fear not, me and my mates will be gg back to take more pix. till then.. taaa

Algae Galore~

2005-04-07T22:31:00.000+08:00

Besides corals and snails, there is something out there in Labrador beach where people seldom bother to take note. They are the marine plants found there. Wide variety of greenery there, from seagrasses (maybe need SS to blog on tis!) to seaweeds. Yes, there are many different types of seaweeds on the beach. So let's check them out!

this is Borgesenia forbesii. It's identity will be confirmed very soon. Isn't it cute? Reminds u of flubber?

Caulerpa lentillifera aka sea grapes. Do you know that fishermen in Thailand and Philippines actually harvest this species of seaweed and sell them in the market? they r known to be a delicacy especially in salad. Maybe we can give it a try when u r there, not here in Labrador cos we dun have much of them left!

Gracilaria. A type of red seaweed abundant on Labrador beach. It is widely grown and harvested in some areas as extracts from this species are industrially useful. I still haven't found out the species of this type of Gracilaria found in Labrador beach because it is very unique. so.. pls stay watch of this blog to find out more!!

Return of the snails

2005-04-07T22:16:00.000+08:00

Decided to post more before I get sucked into the craziness of preparing for papers. So anyways, here's more gorgeous creatures for all you smart pple who visit this site to feast your eyes on...

This... is what i call mollusc-on-a-mollusc. Limpet (cellana) on a top shell (trochus). And this time the limpet is a true limpet.. the real deal. Not like the false limpet in my virgin post. This one has resplendent colours.. like the colours of a pearl... now there's a term for that kinda colours but....... i forgot. Anyway back to Mr limpet. He sticks on really hard to stuff. Difficult to pry them out. (yes i was curious, but being the nature lovers that you all are, I know you will not do the same). I still prefer my pretty little red limpet coz this one's kinda common.

Next off, we have Mr Turbo (turban shell), happily crawling past some rocks looking for some yummylicious algae to munch on.. ok not really munch.. graze.

And then... Ms evil author turns his shell over. hehehe. Well, giving him a chance to show off his muscles what... Look at the yellow meat... doesn't it look yummy?! okok. i'm evil. This particular turbo was relatively big... the size of... a golfball? See the brown part at the opening? on top of the yummylicous yellow meat? that's the operculum. Didn't take a pix of the operculum coz all my photos are for ID purposes and turbos are easy to ID coz of their operculums: the only one made of calcium. It's really hard and pretty with a spiral pattern on the flat side. but sad to say, humans are evil. and selfish. These trap doors that protect Mr Turbo from the prying of crabs or any other predators are often targets of collectors. They're used to make buttons. ya buttons.

Ok to deviate away from my pretty snails.. (saving more pix for later post. :) anticipation is good.) here's 2 other photos that I took during my sampling days... those were the days...

Heron? I dunno what's this bird but he always sneaks around, attacking some poor snail (actually i'm not sure.. ) or some poor fish.... yeah. resident birdy of labrador. along with a kingfisher. but never got a close up of the kingfisher. camera shy.

and here's a sight that really took my breath away....... photos dun even show the wow-ness of the sunset. I don't have a religion but when you see the sunrays and all, you really feel like God is looking at you from behind the clouds, blessing everything the rays touch.. oooooh.... I'm definitely gg back to take more photos.

pretty pretty snails!

2005-04-06T23:15:00.000+08:00

One of Danwei's UROPS mates here to share our sightings. More mates to come. :) Corals... not my thing... What I'm about to show you are the most commonly sighted AND most beautiful creatures you can see on labrador. Of course my frenz will beg to differ.... but still... here's some of the gorgeous creatures that have been accompanying me for the past semester... enjoy.

ooohhh... what did I tell u? Gorgeous. HA. of course there's more to the angaria than just a muddy cover but.. this is really pretty rare. It's the only one I saw in 4 months! So I really love this pix.

Cowrie!!!!!!!! see the 2 little red tentacles sticking out? cool right? I never knew my camera could be so powerful too. haha. you can just feel him feeeeeling his way about.

Certithium cerithium cerithium... recorded for almost every quadrat I took.. These creeper shells are the most abundant lot of gastropods (snails) on the beach, second only to the false limpets... which look like........ this:

They're really tiny... average size probably like half of your little fingernail. Found mostly on the higher parts of the shore, the sandy part with the least rocks. These pretty little red limpets (called them that when I couldn't ID them) are false limpets because they are pulmonates, meaning unlike other gastropods, they are air-breathers and do not breathe through gills.

Really wanted to upload some of the more fascinating stuff that we've seen.. like the spider conch turning over! heh.. too bad i didn't have my camera with me then.. Ok 4 pix for my mollusc section... more coming soon.... akan datang.

More Corals!

2005-04-05T00:45:00.000+08:00

Continuing the feature on corals...

There are just so many nice nice corals here besides the favids (boulder corals) and the soft corals, take a look at these... (images may underestimate the beauty of these ANIMALS due to the cannot-make-it-ness of the author's photography skills though...)

Porites sp. (pore coral) - this is one of the cutest... with those small small corallites less than 1.5mm in diameter, but the coral colony can be quite BIG... like this one is about 0.5m in diameter... Those found at the lower shores can even be as massive as 1.5m in diameter (they're there! go see them!)

Porites sp. (pore coral) - another growth form here... so pretty with the algae... Liyan blogging soon? Tell us more about those algae!

Goniopora sp. - this is one of the few hard corals at the Labrador intertidal which you can actually get to see the polyps and tentacles extended... those are the living parts of the coral that build up the calcium carbonate skeleton we see! If you bother to count the tentacles, there will be 24!

Turbinaria sp. (disc coral) - this is also very pretty, with the irregular disc-shaped form... And even prettier are the extended polyps below (submerged)...

Turbinaria sp. - with polyps extended to feed when submerged!

Montipora sp. (plate coral) - very distinctive to Montipora with the laminar (plate-like) growth form... but of course there are other corals with plate-like forms ya.

One thing I like about them is that they are sessile and don't move around ya noe... so it's easier to locate them and study them... BUT BUT... they do move in one circumstance... as in they are MOVED... guess how???

Who else but some inconsiderate HUMAN BEINGS... and I really mean only some... I believe majority knows how to appreciate the corals... in its natural environment!

I've heard quite a lot of reasons (silly excuses rather...) why people poach the corals from Labrador... but this is really unbelievable:

You see there is a signboard outside that says that the rocky beach is a gazetted nature reserve...
(Source: WildSingapore website http://www.wildsingapore.com)

A poacher actually said, "The sign say cannot take crab and shell, but never say coral."

Coral = marine creatures!!!

And how about, "It says rocky beach. I never take anything from the rocks."

...????!!!!...

2005-03-29T23:29:00.000+08:00

Labrador beach from a distance...