Trip @ SOS

The small jetty near GELANG PATAH

SOS stands for "Save Our Seahorses". It's a non-profit organization commited to saving the seahorse and the Pulai River Estuary in Malaysia. SOS comprised a group of young scientists, students, public volunteers and local fishing communities.

For more information, plz visit : http://www.sosmalaysia.org/

DATE : 29 MAY 2006

It took place at a seagrass bed located at South China Sea, in between Singapore and Johor. Just beside it, we can see Pulau Merambong and the Second Link highway and Singapore Checkpoint.

The Second Link

The seagrass bed can only be seen when the tide is low.... we were actually walking in the middle of the sea, stepping on the sea grasses.

Shy Jye and I arrived at Gelang Patah Petronas Petrol Station at 5.20am to meet up with our guide Mr. Choo, a lecturer of Marine Biology from KUSTEM. After a short briefing of what we were supposed to do for the day, we set off to the Jetty which was about 20minutes away.

Alot of fishermen working here.

Then from the jetty, we had our boat driver, a fisherman to bring us to our destination ---- sea grass bed.

The seagrass bed

Our boat stopped here....

Getting started.... With Mr.Choo's guidance.

What we did there was surveying the distribution and growth of the seagrasses by using quadrat method. For those who study SPM or STPM before will definitely know how to do it, so simple, and fast. The harder part was to recognise different species of sea grasses. Hmm... i think everyone gets to overcome it in just a few minutes, easy task.

Measuring length, we gonna place our quadrats every 50m alongside the tape.

Our volunteers of the day also consists of staffs from the Johor National Park.

Seagrasses of various species.

Along the seagrass bed, we saw alot of beautiful marine creatures resting on the bed, revealing themselves only during low tides.

Seagrape, I've tasted some. Hmm, I think I like the taste, fresh although it has mingled with some salty taste of the sea water.

A starfish as big as my foot!

A moving fast starfish

Pink sea cucumber, size of a thumb.

Sea hair, people said it looks like hair swimming in the water......

Sea-pen, it was hidden underground, I purposedly plucked it out, hahaha....

A slimy sea cucumber, secreting sticky material like bubble gum onto my palm.

Hermit crab, nicer appearance than those I saw in Redang Island.

After surveying seagrasses, we also do survey on seahorses and pipefish. By using a huge fish net, 2 guys pulling at each end for a distance of about 100m, trying to catch whatever is in the water. Of course our main targets were seahorse and pipefish which live around seagrass bed. We need to survey the population of seahorse and pipefish here..........

Pipefish, same family with seahorse yet different genus, it is straight while sea horse curls.. The male pregnants.

A female pipefish, take note the roughened tummy.

A pregnant male pipefish with numerous eggs which resembled clear bubbles on its tummy.

A pregnant male pipefish with almost ripened eggs. Can even see eyes in the eggs.

As the tide began to rise very fast by 9.30am, our job for the day has also been done. Before going back to the jetty, we made a brief visit at Pulau Merambong.

Pulau Merambong... a very tiny island, alot of mangrove trees on it. Soft and hard corals, sponges and other marine creatures were also found. Imagine it's just in front of Singapore Checkpoint and Jurong Industrial Port.

A mangrove tree.

The track going back to the carpark at Jetty.