Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve quickly

I was at the Reserve for a Master Plan feedback session and took the opportunity for a quick look at the marvellous mangroves there. After weeks of trudging through mud to look at mangrove trees, it's a luxury to have a close look at them from the comfort of trails and a boardwalk!
The rare Cassine viburnifolia tree right next to the Mangrove Boardwalk was blooming! This tree is listed as Critically Endangered in the Singapore Red Data Book. I remember when the Boardwalk was being built, it had a big white tape around it to make sure it was not accidentally cut down during the construction. It's nice to see it doing well.

From Tomlinson, this tree occurs in wet coastal communities, mangroves and tidal rivers. It is found from the Andaman Islands through Peninsular Malaysia to northern Sumatra, Borneo and Sulawesi. According to Hsuan Keng, it was found on our sandy beaches in Kranji, Katong and Pulau Brani.

Other mangrove trees were blooming too. I saw this rather oddly structured Rhizophora flower (I think it's a Rhizophora mucronata tree). Perhaps it hasn't bloomed fully yet?
The flowers usually look like this.It has been very hot and dry recently. The pond near the Visitor Centre was completely dry.And on the mangrove trees that secrete salt on their leaves, you can see salt crystals!
But life still goes on in the Reserve. There were lots of Golden orb web spiders out in the mangroves today.Here's a rather smallish young female with pretty coloured knees (so she's probably Nephila maculata). Her teeny little boyfriend is the red speck in the upper left corner. He looks like a smaller version of the female. There are other little red spiders that are rounder in the web. There are probably Argyrodes species which live in her web and sometimes even steal her food.Further along, another young lady has caught lunch!Is it some kind of bee?

A special thrill was finding this trilling Cicada very close to eye level!It's hard to spot one as it's well camouflaged. And even though it was calling, so loudly that it was painful to the ears. The only way to find one, I realise, is to close your eyes and use your ears to triangulate to the spot. Only the male Cicadas call. Of course, to attract females!

I met David and Brandon and Brandon showed me another Mangrove pitviper (Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus) that was curled up in a tree!
Sungei Buloh is a great place to spot furry animals!It was Robert who spotted this Plantain Squirrel (Callosciurus notatus). It was eating out of what looks like a coconut prepared for human eating. Here's a closer look at the cute little creature. Callosciurus means 'Beautiful Squirrels' and the genus includes some of the most colourful mammals. The Plantain squirrel is a lovely greyish brown, with a chestnut belly and a black-and-white line between the two.

After the Master Plan meeting, while we were having a drink at the Cafe, a troop of Long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) quietly visited the pool nearby. One was having a drink from the pool, while others were snacking on the fruits of the Singapore rhododendron (Melastoma malabathricum).
Long-tailed macaques are native to Singapore and their original habitat was mangroves. In fact, they are sometimes also called Crab-eating macaques.
It's so nice to see these wild monkeys behaving naturally. Going about their own business and not begging for food from people.

When people feed wild monkeys it disrupts the natural balance. Monkeys which are used to being fed no longer eat their wild natural food, which is often important in the dispersal of these plants. And instead become aggressive towards humans and start entering human spaces for food. These monkeys are then considered a nuisance and often have to be put down. More about why we should not feed the monkeys on the wildsingapore website.

More about the Reserve on the Reserve website and wildsingapore website.

Why it is important to document and share our biodiversity

People will more readily accept a degraded environment, if they do not know the diversity that existed in the past.

A recent study in the UK found "generational amnesia" where younger people do not realise what has been lost. They also found "personal amnesia", where people fail to notice animals and plants declining even in their own life time."How can you get people behind conservation action if they do not know what they have lost?"

The researchers urged older generations to pass on information, in the same way the elderly have been encouraged to pass on social history about living through World War II.

"You would not deprive your children of what you had and therefore you should not deprive anyone,"

Full article on the wildsingapore news blog.

This is why I believe it is important to document our biodiversity (Explore our wild places!) and to share about what we saw (Express!) through blogs, talks and guided walks (ACT!). More about how you CAN make a difference for our wild places.

Sea cucumber ranching

The Garlic bread sea cucumber (Holothuria scabra) is also called Sandfish and is an important source of income and food for traditional coastal dwellers.
Over-harvesting is seriously affecting its global status and even in Singapore it is listed as 'Vulnerable' on our Red List due mainly to habitat loss rather than over-collection.

Here's an article about its status in Fiji and efforts made to cultivate the animal and to restock populations in marine protected areas.

Hope for sea food
Alumeci Nakeke Fiji Times 14 Feb 09;

The Fiji Sandfish locally called dairo is a delicacy for Fijians that can be prepared in many ways. Sometimes the sea cucumber is stuffed and cooked in coconut cream or mixed with other shellfish and fish for a Lauan dish called "vakasakera".

For really hungry people it can be cooked whole and then cut into thin slices and dipped in lemon juice and chillies

Indeed the sea cucumber (Holothuria Scabra) used to be strung up and sold at the market and consumers looked forward to buying them on Saturdays for Sunday's lunch.

Unfortunately, it's not so easy to find them at the market these days. According to researchers the number of Fiji Sandfish found have declined largely due to overharvesting for international markets. Nowadays, the middlemen come to the village to buy lucrative sea cucumbers .

Overharvesting has been the cause of its decline in numbers and sizes as it could take about two years for the villagers to harvest them for food.

In the district of Wailevu in Cakaudrove, villagers have now seen the consequences of overharvesting. Cakaudrove Yaubula Management Support Team community site representative Apolosi Silaca said its depletion was felt by the villagers.

"Those people have been selling them and getting $1 for each dairo but when sold in overseas markets it could get much more than that. Now they know they are bringing in less than before and even in some villages the middlemen have set up their collecting sites where they also cook and dry them," he said.

But people can also get more for the A-Grade sandfish which are of bigger sizes.

But there is a ray of hope now for the villagers as a research team is working on a mini-project for sandfish culture and sea ranching.

This is the first time it has been trialed in Fiji but they are optimistic it will be successful.

USP Institute of Applied Sciences project officer Semisi Meo who is also assisting in the project said sandfish releases had been tried out in New Caledonia by the Worldfish Centre where results were promising but inconsistent.

Research into the survival and growth of juvenile sandfish released into the wild in Fiji will help determine whether these techniques can help to restore overfished stocks.

An additional aim of the Fiji project is the transfer of technology for production of sandfish from Australia and New Caledonia to other parts of the Pacific. It is an Australian Centre for Agriculture Research mini project called "Culture of juvenile sandfish for restocking " coordinated by Cathy Hair.

The Secretariat of the Pacific Community also has a collaborating researcher Tim Pickering working with Fiji Fisheries, J Hunter Pearls Limited and the University of the South Pacific.

Meo said a stakeholders' workshop was held for Fisheries by the USP Marine Studies Program with IAS last year.

The workshop discussed the the sea cucumber fishery and its management and scoped out the opportunity for culture and release them in Fiji.

For the trial itself the broodstock was collected from Natuvu Village, Wailevu in Cakaudrove. Local divers search for sandfish at high tide in the evenings which was also paid for according to its weight. Other broodstock was collected from a mangrove pool at Nawi Village

The villagers, he said also agreed that sandfish stock was declining and that was why they were excited about the project.

The Hunter Pearls Ltd Hatchery in Savusavu which is used for blacklip pearl oyster was chosen because it had the basic facilities for rearing sandfish and only minor modifications were done to facilitate the activity.

Bigger sandfish were chosen for spawning as these were more likely to be mature and the females have greater numbers of eggs.

"When they (sandfish) get to the stage where they are more than 3 grams in weight, the juveniles are then ready for the next phase in which they will be released and monitored in seagrass beds in the wild," he said.

"This is the part scientists are still unsure about, so it needs to be properly tested".

"At the moment the Hunter Pearls Hatchery in Savusavu is being used for spawning and rearing the juveniles. When they grow to the right size they can be released back to where the broodstock originated. At the same time they will be monitored to see how they respond the new conditions of the wild. The juveniles will also be tagged at the hatchery and that is how they will be distinguished from wild sandsfish at the release site."

The juveniles need to spend more time in the hatchery until they are big enough to cope with release into the wild. It is hoped that in a couple of months time they will be ready for release, Meo said. Some will be kept in fenced pens to monitor survival and growth rate. "We will also be trying to learn its tolerance in the wild and after one year the pens will be removed," he said.

He said to prevent poaching the re-stocked juveniles would be taken to marine protected areas only.

This will be an added benefit and incentive for Cakaudrove communities who are considering setting up marine protected areas. For villages in Wailevu it is their hope that this will be their chance of restocking their depleting dairo resources.

"We have presented this project to the Cakaudrove Provincial Council and they have fully endorsed the idea. There are over 35 MPAs from the 135 villages in the province and the research will be carried out in one or two qoliqoli where suitable conditions for the juvenile sandfish are found," he said.

"This project, if successful, could also contribute to the communities' well-being," said Meo.

"At the moment we are hopeful that it will be successful and if proven it will be taken to other MPAs in Cakaudrove and possibly Viti Levu and other sites. Other Pacific Island countries will also be watching the outcome of the trial with interest."

* Ms Nakeke is an ocean science reporter for SeaWeb, a non-government organisation that works with the media and scientific community to raise awareness on ocean issues.

Antibiotic Resistance and Marine Ecosystems

New awareness is needed of the potential for antibiotic-resistant illnesses from the marine environment. At the same time, the ocean is a source for possible cures of those threats.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science stated that newly completed studies of ocean beach users point to an increasing risk of staph infections, and that current treatments for seafood poisoning may be less effective due to higher than expected antibiotic resistance. The group also asserts that new research has identified sponge and coral-derived chemicals with the potential for breaking down antibiotic resistant compounds and that could lead to new personalized medical treatments.

And a piece of advice: there is no reason to shun the beach, but people should shower before and after going in the water. And, it is wise to avoid the beach if you have an open wound.

Antibiotic Resistance: Rising Concern In Marine Ecosystems
ScienceDaily 13 Feb 09;

A team of scientists, speaking February 13 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, called for new awareness of the potential for antibiotic-resistant illnesses from the marine environment, and pointed to the marine realm as a source for possible cures of those threat.

The group stated that newly completed studies of ocean beach users point to an increasing risk of staph infections, and that current treatments for seafood poisoning may be less effective due to higher than expected antibiotic resistance. The group also asserts that new research has identified sponge and coral-derived chemicals with the potential for breaking down antibiotic resistant compounds and that could lead to new personalized medical treatments.

"While the marine environment can indeed be hostile to humans, it may also provide new resources to help reduce our risks from illnesses such as those caused by water borne staph or seafood poisoning," stated Paul Sandifer, Ph.D., former member of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, chief scientist of NOAA's Oceans and Human Health Initiative, and co-organizer of the symposium.

Carolyn Sotka, also with the NOAA Oceans and Human Health Initiative and lead organizer of the session, stated "It is critically important that we continue research on the complex interactions between the condition of our oceans and human health. Without doubt, this research will develop new understandings of ocean health risks and perhaps more importantly crucial discoveries that will lead to new solutions to looming public health problems."

Coral, Sponges Point To Personalized Medicine Potential

"We've found significant new tools to fight the antibiotic resistance war," says NOAA research scientist Peter Moeller, Ph.D., in describing the identification of new compounds derived from a sea sponge and corals.

"The first hit originates with new compounds that remove the shield bacteria utilize to protect themselves from antibiotics. The second hit is the discovery of novel antibiotics derived from marine organisms such as corals, sponges and marine microbes that fight even some of the worst infectious bacterial strains. With the variety of chemicals we find in the sea and their highly specific activities, medicines in the near future can be customized to individuals' needs, rather than relying on broad spectrum antibiotics."

The research team, a collaboration between scientists at NOAA's Hollings Marine Laboratory in Charleston, S.C., the Medical University of South Carolina and researchers at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C., noticed a sponge that seemed to thrive despite being located in the midst of a dying coral reef. After extraction, testing showed that one of the isolated chemicals, algeliferin, breaks down a biofilm barrier that bacteria use to protect themselves from threats including antibiotics. The same chemical can also disrupt or inhibit formation of biofilm on a variety of bacteria previously resistant to antibiotics which could lead to both palliative and curative response treatment depending on the problem being addressed.

"This could lead to a new class of helper drugs and result in a rebirth for antibiotics no longer thought effective," notes Moeller. "Its potential application to prevent biofilm build-up in stents, intravenous lines and other medical uses is incredible."

The compound is currently being tested for a variety of medical uses and has gone through a second round of sophisticated toxicity screening and thus far shows no toxic effects.

Staph: A Beach Going Concern

Research, funded by multiple agencies and conducted by the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences and the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, found that swimmers using public ocean beaches increase their risk for exposure to staph organisms, and they may increase their risk for potential staph infections once they enter the water.

"Our study found that if you swim in subtropical marine waters, you have a significant chance , approximately 37 percent, of being exposed to staph — either yours or possibly that from someone else in the water with you," said Dr. Lisa Plano, a pediatrician and microbiologist with the Miller School of Medicine. Plano collaborated in the first large epidemiologic survey of beach users in recreational marine waters without a sewage source of pollution. "This exposure might lead to colonization or infection by water-borne bacteria which are shed from every person who enters the water. People who have open wounds or are immune-compromised are at greatest risk of infection."

The Miami research team does not advise avoiding beaches, but recommends that beach-goers take precautions to reduce risk by showering thoroughly before entering the water and after getting out. They also point out that while antibiotic resistant staph, commonly known as MRSA, has been increasingly found in diverse environments, including the marine environment, less than three percent of staph isolated from beach waters in their study was of the potentially virulent MRSA variety. More research is needed to understand how long staph (including MRSA) can live in coastal waters, and human uptake and infection rates associated with beach exposures.

Antibiotic Resistance in Seafood-borne Pathogens Increasing

Researchers at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Science in West Boothbay Harbor, Maine, report that the frequency of antibiotic resistance in vibrio bacteria was significantly higher than expected. These findings suggest that the current treatment of vibirio infections should be re-examined, since these microbes are the leading cause of seafood-borne illness and death in the United States. The severity of these infections makes antibiotic resistance in vibrios a critical public health concern.

Naturally-occurring resistance to antibiotics among Vibrios may undermine the effectiveness of antibiotic treatment, but as yet this has not been extensively studied. Furthermore, antibiotics and other toxicants discharged into the waste stream by humans may increase the frequency of antibiotic-resistant Vibrio strains in contaminated coastal environments.

"We found resistance to all major classes of antibiotics routinely used to treat Vibrio infections, including aminoglycosides, tetracyclines, and cephalosporins," stated Bigelow's Ramunas Stepanauskas, Ph.D. "In contrast, we found that Vibrios were highly susceptible to carbapenems and new-generation fluoroquinolones, such as Imipenem and Ciprofloxacin. This information may be used to design better strategies to treat Vibrio infections."

Adapted from materials provided by National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Infectious Superbug Invades Beaches
Robin Lloyd, livescience.com Yahoo News 14 Feb 09;

CHICAGO - Add the MRSA "superbug" to the list of concerns you bring to the beach nowadays, a research doctor said today.

It's still safe to go in the water, especially if you shower thoroughly before and after swimming, but antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a strain of bacteria that can cause staph infections that are difficult to treat with traditional anti-infection drugs such as methicillin, can be caught when you take a dip in ocean water, said Dr. Lisa Plano of the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine.

MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or multiple-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. It has become a deadly and growing problem in hospitals in recent years.

"MRSA is in the water and potentially in the sand," Plano told a group of reporters today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "This constitutes a risk to anyone who goes to the beach and uses the water ... Most of us won't get infected but it only takes one infected person to spread [MRSA to others]."

So-called staph or Staphylococcus aureus, the kind that responds to antibiotics, is not a big deal typically out in the general public. About a third of us has it living in the nose or on the skin all the time, and we don't get sick from the bug. But for babies, the elderly and other people with compromised immune systems, staph can lead to an infection that can be deadly.

And in any population, when people catch the antibiotic-resistant strain (MRSA), doctors struggle to find a way to kill the infection.

Both the staph that responds to antibiotics and MRSA (which does not) have long been problems in hospitals, but the bugs have cropped up in locker rooms full of healthy people more recently, including some rumored infections among NFL and NBA players. Staph and MRSA can also occur in daycare settings.

A 'complicated bug'

Scientists already knew staph could spread in water. Now the research led by Plano shows that MRSA is also found at the beach - in the sea water and potentially in the sand.

To pin this down, Plano and her colleagues recently studied 1,300 adult bathers at a South Florida beach, half of whom took a dip in the water and brought back a sample of water for later lab analysis, and the other half of whom sat on the beach for 15 minutes.

Some 37 percent of the ocean water samples had Staphylococcus aureus in them, and 3 percent of those were the antibiotic-resistant strain of the bug, Plano said, even though the beach is located nowhere near a sewage source.

In other words, the "call was coming from inside the house" - probably, the bathers.

The staph was relatively mild strain, Plano said, but the strain of MRSA was particularly virulent, she said.

One weird thing she found was that a later genetic analysis of the bugs in the water samples indicated a very low presence of markers for genes that cause the skin infections associated with staph.

"Staph is a really complicated bug," Plano told LiveScience in a phone interview earlier in the day. "S. aureus has an excess of 40 different virulence factors that it could potentially have and use to establish different types of infections, and not all staph will have all of them. Basically, most staph will have some of them, and what I looked at and what I compared these to are ones we knew to be associated with skin-infecting bugs."

In the sand too

Municipal pools and most private pools are safe from S. aureus if chlorine levels are appropriate, Plano said.

But there is some evidence that staph is spread in beach sand, she said. In one study, several quarts of staph-free sea water was poured over 14 previously staph-free toddlers in diapers who had played for 10 minutes in beach sand. The water that flowed off the kids was collected and analyzed - some of it was found to have S. aureus in it.

"If they had MRSA on their skin, they would've had MRSA in the sand," Plano said.
It's unclear if staph and MRSA incubate in ocean water, she said. "We know that MRSA can be isolated from marine mammals such as dolphins and seals, which suggests MRSA is still in the water," she said, but more research needs to be done to find out how long organisms can survive in the water.

Recommendations: shower

Still, there is no reason to shun the beach, Plano said, but people should shower before and after going in the water. And, it is wise to avoid the beach if you have an open wound.

Plano just wants people to be aware of the potential risks of S. aureus and MRSA at the beach.

"This is a very complicated issue," she said. "There is a tremendous amount of work that still needs to be done for us to understand the risk of person at beach being exposed to Staph aureus. You shouldn't fear the beach. You go to the beach. You should have fun. You should embrace it."

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Florida Department of Health and Environmental Protection, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Strange anemone from Pulau Semakau identified!

This strange anemone was spotted on Terumbu Raya (a submerged reef just off Pulau Semakau) by Andy and Stephen von Peltz. Andy filmed it and below are Stephen's photos of it. Dr Tan Swee Hee of the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research kindly checked its identity for us with Dr Daphne G. Fautin. Dr Daphne is the world authority on sea anemones and she says it is probably Actinostephanus. She adds that the only species of the genus is A. haeckeli and it is known from the western rim of the Pacific.

Wow! So confirmation of its identity may make this a new record for Singapore!
Above is a closeup photo by Stephen. It sure looks intimidating and common names for it include Sea snake anemone. (And it seems appropriate that the Actinostephanus was photographed by Stephen!)

See Andy's video clip of this anemone on his sgbeachbum blog.

I saw a similar sea anemone among silty coral rubble at Beting Bronok in Jul 08. Beting Bronok is also a submerged reef, but it is off Pulau Tekong on our northern shores.

The one I saw seemed to be eating something and eventually curled up into a ball.

A similar sea anemone was also seen in Changi on Aug 08, see the Manta blog for more details.

Have you seen a similar sea anemone on our shores? If you did, it would be great if you could share your sighting so we have a better idea of the status of these amazing animals.

Singapore port rates cut to help shipping industry

Port dues have been cut for one year by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) to help the shipping industry in the recession. Last year, 130,000 cean-going vessels and harbour craft operated in Singapore's port. There are about 1,000 ships in port at any one time.The government would also be injecting $45 million more into the Maritime Cluster Fund (MCF) to support new business developments.

Concessions to help shipping industry for a year
Straits Times 13 Feb 09;

THE Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) is introducing two measures to help the shipping industry in this current downturn.

From April 1, there will be a 10 per cent cut in port dues for all ocean-going vessels with a port stay of not more than 10 days.

This will benefit bulk carriers and tankers, among others.

There is also a 20 per cent concession in port dues for harbour craft engaged in commercial activities within Singapore port waters.

This will help lower the business costs of bunker suppliers, ship chandlers, tug boat operators and domestic ferry operators.

Both concessions will last for a one-year period. They will benefit operators whose vessels call and operate in Singapore's port.

Last year, the number of ocean-going vessels and harbour craft operating in the port came to 130,000.

There are about 1,000 ships in the port at any one time, according to the MPA.

Senior Parliamentary Secretary (Transport) Teo Ser Luck announced the concessionary measures in Parliament yesterday, as part of a slew of initiatives needed to help the industry ride out the downturn.

MARIA ALMENOAR

20% port dues concession and $45m for maritime fund
Business Times 13 Feb 09;

THE government is focusing on reducing business costs as well as encouraging new business development in the maritime community to help it cope with the downturn.

Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Transport Teo Ser Luck yesterday announced a 20 per cent port dues concession for harbour craft engaged in commercial activities within Singapore port waters, which will take effect from April 1 and last for one year.

Mr Teo also announced that the government would be injecting $45 million more into the Maritime Cluster Fund (MCF) to support new business developments. This new component of the MCF will enable new maritime businesses planning to set up in Singapore, or existing maritime businesses planning to expand into new lines of businesses to tap the fund to defray start-up costs.

The port dues concession aims to lower the business costs of port and marine services providers, such as bunker suppliers, shipchandlers, tug boat operators and domestic ferry operators, many of whom are small and medium-size enterprises.

In addition, there will also be a 10 per cent port dues concession for all ocean-going vessels with a port stay of not more than 10 days for the same time period.

This will be over and above existing port dues concessions already enjoyed by the industry, such as the 20 per cent concession for container ships and 20 per cent rebate scheme for vehicle carrier operators and will broaden the spectrum of vessels benefiting from the financial relief.

In 2008, ocean-going vessels and harbour craft that operated in the port totalled some 130,000.

The shipping community was happy with the business-friendly moves. 'The SSA is grateful that MPA has expediently adopted the industry's feedback and suggestions through our regular dialogue sessions,' said Singapore Shipping Association president SS Teo.

'We will continue to work closely with the MPA to explore how we can further reduce costs and enhance the competitiveness of Singapore's maritime industry to ride out the current economic downturn. I also take this opportunity to urge all private and public sectors to take heed of MPA's example on how they can help reduce business costs for the shipping industry to survive this economic crisis.'

Back to the back mangroves at Pulau Semakau

A quick but fun trip to the mosquito-infested back mangroves yesterday morning, with a great team from the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research who joined the Semakau Book Team for another trip to Pulau Semakau.

We were on the hunt for crabs, especially fiddler crabs. Amos gamely joined us too!

The tide was rather high when we got to the shore, but we still managed to see lots of fiddler crabs and other crabs. I learnt today the fiddler crabs that we know and love could actually be made up of several, similar-looking species! A closer look by experts is needed to find out for sure. The RMBR team is superb at this!
And here's an odd-looking crab. Is it a Sand bubbler crab (Scopimera sp.) or a Soldier crab (Dotilla sp.)? And look at the bright red markings on the legs. We often overlook these seemingly boring crabs. But thanks to the crab experts, we see them with new eyes!

Then it was time to unroll our sleeves and put on our best mosquito-proof gear and head off into the dense undergrowth of the Back Mangroves. Here, there were even more crabs!

The crabs are tiny and fast and look just like the mud. It was really hard to work with them, surrounded by clouds of blood-thirsty mosquitos, while trying not to fall down from slippery mudlobster mounds and negotiating tricky pnematophore covered pools while avoiding being strangled and tripped by vines and parts of trees.

But here's a pretty crab with blue markings near its mouth. These little crabs are probably Sesarmine crabs, which according to the "Guide to the Mangroves of Singapore" by Peter Ng and N. Sivasothi, are the dominant crabs in our mangroves, with almost 40 species. One of the reasons for their success is their ability to live in extreme environments. They are able to 'recycle' deoxygenated water by pumping this water through a dense mat of hairs on the face and/or carapace thereby aerating it before re-circulating it into their gill chamber! Read more about them on the online version of the guidebook.

For me, the special encounters was with Ellobid snails! These snails belong to Family Ellobidae and are only commonly seen in such tricky areas. On the shores, we often only see their empty shells. Since I'm quite lame and rarely struggle through back mangroves, I've not seen too many of these snails!

Here's one showing its white spotted body. It looks like an Ellobium snail (Ellobium sp.).

A view of the underside of this olive-shaped animal.

Another one with a more rounded shell, possibly a Cassidula snail (Cassidula sp.).

The underside looks different, rounded and slightly pink. And the shell also has a banded pattern.

The RMBR team show us much larger Ellobium snails!

If they remind you of the more commonly encountered land snails, you're not far off. Like land snails, the Ellobid snails also breathe air (instead of through gills like most other marine snails). All of them lack an operculum to seal the shell opening.

Here's the underside of the big snails.

Having just spent a day with the Dragonfly Team, I also start to notice these insects.

This pretty one was resting on a mangrove pneumatophore.

And here it is showing its delicate wings. I have, of course, no idea what it might be. Hopefully, the Dragonfly Team can help.

Alas, I failed to find the Hairy foot mangrove spider (Idioctis littoralis) which builds burrows in mudlobster mounds. It waits inside its burrow for passing prey, like a trapdoor spider. And also no fiddler crabs. What I thought was one, was not. It was also hard to figure out the tree species in the area as the growth was so dense that the leaves of the bigger trees were quite high up.

Though it isn't fun to explore such tricky areas, the company was great! And from the google map of Semakau, it looks like there are more of such places to get to and poke around. I should just find enough courage to do it again soon.

Meanwhile, Eric and the rest of the Book Team were out trying a tricky dive. I hope they are Ok and had a successful day.

World Asteroidea Database launched

Christopher Mah announced the launch of the World Asteroidea Database on his Echinoblog.
From the introduction to the Database:

Taxonomic coverage of the database includes not only all “true” starfish taxa but also the enigmatic and controversial concentricycloids, which have been included based on the taxonomic classification of Mah (2006). Although identification of taxa with fossil members is indicated, most have not yet been included. Some fossil taxa may be entered in the future for completeness but fossil groups were not a primary objective for the WoRMS database.

The core of the World Asteroidea Database (WAD) is derived from the "Asteroid Names List" developed primarily by Ailsa M. Clark. However the WAD is complimented by numerous other echinoderm compendia (e.g., Clark & Downey's Starfishes of the Atlantic, Rowe & Gate's Zoological Catalogue of Australia, etc) and will eventually include all subsequent taxonomic changes and newly described taxa.

Shell may move refinery to Indonesia

Indonesian Vice-President Jusuf Kalla says Shell is considering moving its oil processing operations from Singapore to Indonesia.

Shell wished to take part in the tender for an oil field in the Natuna Sea. The head of the Capital Investment Coordinating Board, Mr M. Lutfi, said that Shell's chances would be better if it was willing to move its oil refining operations in Singapore to Indonesia.

Shell has a huge presence in Singapore. It has been in Singapore since 1961 when it set up the first oil refinery on Bukom.

View of Pulau Bukom from the seagrasses on Pulau Semakau. Pulau Bukom is also near Pulau Hantu and Cyrene Reefs.

Shell may move refinery to Indonesia: V-P Jusuf
Straits Times 12 Feb 09;

ROYAL Dutch Shell is considering moving its oil processing operations to Indonesia from Singapore, said Indonesian Vice-President Jusuf Kalla.

'In a meeting over dinner, Shell has expressed its readiness for it,' he said after visiting the port in Rotterdam, according to a recent Antara report.

He said this after meeting Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenender, who told him Shell wished to take part in the tender for an oil field in the Natuna Sea.

The Indonesian news agency said no decision had been made on it but Mr Jusuf said four companies - Exxon from the United States, Shell from the Netherlands and other companies from Europe and China - are on the list to compete for the project.

According to Antara, Mr Jusuf said the Indonesian government had asked the company to run the upstream business as well as oil refinement in the country given that it is already operating downstream business through its gas stations.

The head of the Capital Investment Coordinating Board, Mr M. Lutfi, said that Shell's chances would be better if it was willing to move its oil refining operations in Singapore to Indonesia.

He suggested the Batam and Bintan free trade zones, which were only 20km from Singapore, as possible locations for the operations, Antara reported.

'If Shell would accept the offer, I believe it would have a better position and added value than the others,' he said.

When asked if Shell has any plans to relocate its refinery business, a spokesman in Singapore said: 'Officially, we do not comment on speculation.

'Indonesia is a very important country. Shell has a growing downstream business in Indonesia and continues to look for opportunities to expand our business activities, including in the upstream and in partnership with Pertamina.'

Shell has a huge presence in Singapore. It has been in Singapore since 1961 when it set up the first oil refinery on Bukom.

Shell Singapore also undertakes international trading of oil and petrochemical products and is a key hub of Shell Trading's global trading network.

Veep: Shell ready to move to Indonesia
Antara 9 Feb 09;

The Hague (ANTARA News) - Vice President Jusuf Kalla said here on Sunday that Shell Royal Dutch oil company had expressed its readiness to move its oil processing operations to Indonesia.

"In a meeting over dinner Shell has expressed its readiness for it," he said after visiting the port in Rotterdam.

Dutch prime minister Jan Peter Balkenender in a meeting with Kalla earlier said that Shell wished to take part in the tender for the exploitation of the Natuna D Alpha Block.

Kalla welcomed the interest but no decision had yet been made on it.

Kalla said four companies namely Exxon from the US, Shell from the Netherlands and other companies from Europe and China had been on the list to compete for the project.

He admitted that Shell had the expertise but no decision had been made yet about it. So far, he said, Shell had already operated in oil downstream business in the country through its gas stations. In view of that he said the Indonesian government had asked the company to also take part in the upstream business as well as in oil refinement.

"However the most important thing for us is PT Pertamina," he said adding that the country`s state-owned oil company had to play the biggest role in the business.

The head of the Capital Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), M Lutfi, meanwhile said that Shell`s chance would be bigger if it was willing to move its oil refining operations in Singapore to Indonesia.

He said he had suggested Batam and Bintan free trade zones which were only 20 kilometer away from Singapore for possible locations for the operations.

"If Shell would accept the offer I believe it would have a better position and added value than the other," he said.

Lutfi said if Shell would move its refining operations to Indonesia it could open up 930,000 new employment for the people in the country and mobilize its 42 company descendants.

He said the Indonesian government was currently opening an opportunity for world companies to participate in the exploitation of the Natuna D Alpha Block.

Although the government has given the right to exploit the block to PT Pertamina other companies could join as Pertamina`s partners.(*)

RI offers Shell to build refinery in Batam
Aditya Suharmoko, The Jakarta Post 9 Feb 09;

Indonesia has opened the possibility for Netherlands-based Royal Dutch Shell Plc., Europe's second largest oil company, to build a refinery in Batam, while shortlisting the company to the explore Natuna block with state oil and gas firm PT Pertamina.

Pertamina has been handed the lead in the massive Natuna project and is now seeking partners.

On Saturday, Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) chairman M. Lutfi said that while putting Shell on the government's shortlist to explore Natuna, Indonesia had also offered the company to build a plant in Batam for refining and cracking. Lutfi was speaking to reporters after accompanying Vice President Jusuf Kalla in a meeting with Netherlands Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende in The Hague.

"We offered the prime minister the possibility to move Shell's facilities from Singapore to Batam. It can do refining and cracking in Batam due to the large amounts of gas there *in the Natuna block*," he said.

He added that if Shell refined 320,000 barrel of oil equivalent per day, it would create 42 new sectors and absorb 192,000 new workers.

"It turns raw materials into half-processed goods," he said.

Total investment for the Natuna block is estimated at US$39 billion, according to the BKPM. Lutfi said that besides Shell, US-based ExxonMobil, Norway's StatOil and China's CNOOC had expressed interest in exploring the site.

The government has ended its contract with ExxonMobil - the previous operator - to explore the block, giving Pertamina the lead in the project. Kalla said the government wanted its natural resource to be explored by several parties "to be more competitive".

"We don't want our all natural resources in one basket. It should be a combination, not only American, but also European, so there will be a comparison to be more competitive," he said.

"Shell has technical experience. I said *to the prime minister* that as long as it complies with the requirements, we're very welcoming."

He added that Pertamina, not foreign companies, should play the biggest role in exploring oil and gas in Indonesia, unlike in previous deals.

"Why was Karen *Agustiawan* chosen as Pertamina president director? Because she's an expert i n refining, processing and distribution," he said. Kalla was referring the new Pertamina chief, who last week replaced Ari H. Soemarno to become the first woman to head the oil company. Karen previously served as Pertamina upstream director.

More links
The petrochemical industry and our Southern Islands on the widlfilms blog

Platyhelminthes in YOU!

Everyone loves marine flatworms! They are pretty and colorful and a delight to discover. Flatworms belong to the Phylum Platyhelminthes. Which includes some less adorable members such as tapeworms.

While tapeworms are quite icky to contemplate, they are amazing creatures in their own right. And a new Order of tapeworms has recently been discovered! Yet, this is difficult to greet with the same enthusiasm and joy as discoveries of marine flatworms ...
This is a scanning electron micrograph of the scolex (i.e., anterior attachment organ) of Rhinebothrium sp., a tapeworm in the new order Rhinebothriidea. The scolex is about 900 µm wide. This species, like all rhinebothriideans, has 4 bothridia on it scolex, each borne on a muscular stalk. Credit: Claire J. Healy

New Foot-long Tapeworms Identified
livescience.com Yahoo News 11 Feb 09;

A major group of tapeworms, parasitic flatworms that can grow to more than 30 feet long in the digestive tracks of humans, fish and other animals while absorbing their nutrients, has been discovered by Canadian researchers.

The new tapeworm group, an order now dubbed Rhinebothriidea and that includes worms that parasitize stingrays and grow up to a foot long, was established as new to science by Claire J. Healy, a curator at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, and her colleagues.

Infection with a tapeworm is rare in the United States. People are often unaware they are infected, via an animal or water, but symptoms can include abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite and malnutrition. The treatment is a pill that kills the worm and helps the body expel it.

The discovery of the order Rhinebothriidea, which includes five genera new to science, represents a significant step forward in terms of understanding the evolutionary interrelationships of tapeworms, Healy said. The order is detailed in the March 2009 issue of the International Journal for Parasitology.

"This study illuminates an important part of the backbone of the tapeworm tree of life," Healy said. "It sets the stage for further research into the evolutionary relationships among tapeworms."

Catch-all category re-examined

The research started with a comprehensive study of a group of tapeworms that parasitize batoid fishes (stingrays and their relatives). Scientists previously had classified these worms classified within a subfamily of the Tetraphyllidea, an order that has lost credibility over the last two decades and is now viewed as a catch-all category for species that did not clearly fall within other orders, Healy said.

To clear things up, Healy and her colleagues obtained genetic sequences of 58 species of tapeworms, representing 30 genera in 5 tapeworm orders, the majority of these sequences having been obtained for the first time as part of this study.

Analysis of these data resulted in an evolutionary tree that strongly supports a lineage of tapeworms, including the study species, which is distinct from the Tetraphyllidea.

Using light and scanning electron microscopy, as well as histology, the research team found that the members of this lineage of tapeworms displayed physical characteristics that demonstrated a shared common ancestry.

Gripping details

Tapeworms use muscular pads or cups called bothridia to grip the surface of the host's intestine. The bothridia in members of the newly identified lineage were borne on stalks, rather than being directly attached to the scolex (head part of body) proper. Based on this morphological feature, members of this lineage can be identified as belonging to the new order, the Rhinebothriidea, separate from the Tetraphyllidea.

The proposed new order includes 13 genera, five of which are new to science, having been discovered in the course of Healy and her colleagues' research.

More than 200 species, many of them undescribed, fall into this order with more being discovered as study continues. Future research on the Tetraphyllidea and its relatives may elucidate how these worms made the evolutionary transitions from marine to freshwater and terrestrial lifestyles.

12 Feb: Happy Birthday Charles Darwin!

Charles Darwin would be 200 on Feb. 12, 2009. Darwin's theory of evolution is one of the best substantiated scientific bodies of thought in human history, yet it has been a flashpoint for public debate from nearly the time it was published under duress in 1859 as "On the Origin of Species."

There are lots of great blog posts about Darwin to mark the occasion. Here's just one of the many media articles about Charles Darwin and his life and work.

Time To Put Darwin in His Place
Robert Roy Britt, livescience.com Yahoo News 10 Feb 09;

Charles Darwin would be 200 years old this week. And after all these years, people are still arguing about the theory of evolution that he fathered.

A primary reason: Some religious groups object to the notion that humans emerged millions of years ago from apes, or a common ancestor shared with apes, and that all life evolved over time, rather than being created as-is by God. This is the gist of it, though there are numerous variations on creationist arguments with evolution.

But there's another reason for the ongoing debate that may surprise you: The terms "Darwinian evolution" and "Darwinism" - used frequently by scientists, teachers and the media - are misleading.

Scientists have failed to let Darwin die, even as the theory he birthed grew up, some scientists now say. Evolutionary biology has evolved greatly since Darwin first generated the controversy with the 1859 publication of On the Origin of Species, and some think it's time to divorce his name from the theory's name.

The term Darwinism "fails to convey the full panoply of modern evolutionary biology accurately, and it fosters the inaccurate perception that the field stagnated for 150 years after Darwin's day," Eugenie C. Scott and Glenn Branch of the National Center for Science Education wrote last month in the journal Evolution: Education and Outreach.

Birth of evolution

In Origin, Darwin proposed that living things descended with modification from common ancestors. Within a decade or so, most scientists in Britain, at least, had accepted this basic idea of evolution, Scott and Branch explain.

Darwin's other big idea, that evolutionary change was driven by natural selection, was much slower to catch on, Scott and Branch write. It took other research, including a 20th-century rediscovery of work by Gregor Mendel - a priest and contemporary of Darwin who had unraveled the basic principles of heredity by crossbreeding peas - to give widespread credence to natural selection.

To scientists nowadays, there is no debate about the solidity of the theory of evolution. Like the theory of gravity, evolution has been tested every which way, and though there remains plenty to learn about some of the details of how it works, there is no questioning the fact that it is at work, creating new species such as drug-resistant bacteria on short time scales or, in the longer term, humans, who evolved from other primates.

Evolution is one of the most well-established theories in science, supported by observations in many fields, from fossil evidence to DNA work done only in recent years.

Other kinds of evolution?

Yet because scientists and the media refer to "Darwinian evolution," there's an implicit suggestion that there are other kinds, argues Carl Safina, adjunct professor at Stony Brook University, in an essay this week in The New York Times.

"We don't call astronomy Copernicism, nor gravity Newtonism," Safina points out. "Using phrases like 'Darwinian selection' or 'Darwinian evolution' implies there must be another kind of evolution at work, a process that can be described with another adjective. For instance, 'Newtonian physics' distinguishes the mechanical physics Newton explored from subatomic quantum physics. So 'Darwinian evolution' raises a question: What's the other evolution?"

There is none, of course.

Scott and Branch, in their paper, delved much deeper into the confusion fueled by these terms, given that evolutionary biology has expanded to include many theories and concepts unknown in the 19th century.

"The term "Darwinism" is, therefore, ambiguous and misleading," they write.

"Compounding the problem of 'Darwinism' is the hijacking of the term by creationists to portray evolution as a dangerous ideology - an 'ism' - that has no place in the science classroom," Scott and Branch argue. "When scientists and teachers use 'Darwinism' as synonymous with evolutionary biology, it reinforces such a misleading portrayal and hinders efforts to present the scientific standing of evolution accurately. Accordingly, the term 'Darwinism' should be abandoned as a synonym for evolutionary biology."

In short, it's time to put Charles Darwin in his place, with all due respect, and accept that his theory has evolved.

More links

• LiveScience Topics: Charles Darwin
  
• Darwin's Theory: Too Big To Publish Joe Palca on NPR 11 Feb 09; about the role of Wallace in nudging Darwin to publish his theory.
  
• Reinventing Darwin: Quotable things he never said Marlowe Hood Yahoo News 11 Feb 09
  
• Charles Darwin: Strange and Little-known Facts Robin Lloyd livescience.com Yahoo News 12 Feb 09

Can Algae Save The World - Again?

In the distant past, algae helped turn the earth's then inhospitable atmosphere into one that could support modern life through photosynthesis. Some of the algae sank to sea or lake beds and slowly became oil.

The race is now on to find economic ways to turn algae, one of the planet's oldest life forms, into vegetable oil that can be made into biodiesel, jet fuel, other fuels and plastic products. Such fuels are considered to be net carbon neutral because the algae absorb greenhouse gases when they grow.

"Algae does have a lot of positive attributes but there are a lot of hurdles that have to be overcome before this becomes a commercial reality,"

Can Algae Save The World - Again?
Stuart McDill, PlanetArk 11 Feb 09;

PLYMOUTH - Can algae save the world again? The microscopic green plants cleaned up the earth's atmosphere millions of years ago and scientists hope they can do it now by helping remove greenhouse gases and create new oil reserves.

In the distant past, algae helped turn the earth's then inhospitable atmosphere into one that could support modern life through photosynthesis, which plants use to turn carbon dioxide and sunlight into sugars and oxygen.

Some of the algae sank to sea or lake beds and slowly became oil. "All we're doing is turning the clock back," says Steve Skill, a biochemist at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory.

"Nature has done this many millions of years ago in producing the crude oil we're burning today. So as far as nature is concerned this is nothing new," he said.

The race is now on to find economic ways to turn algae, one of the planet's oldest life forms, into vegetable oil that can be made into biodiesel, jet fuel, other fuels and plastic products.

"So we are harvesting sunshine directly using algae, then we are extracting that stored energy in the form of oil from the alga and then using that to make fuels and other non-petroleum based products," Skill said.

He predicted that industry will be cultivating algae in viable quantities for commercial oil production with a decade.

Such fuels are considered to be net carbon neutral because the algae absorb greenhouse gases when they grow.

TEST FLIGHT

Many companies are working on algae and biofuels including U.S. groups Sapphire Energy, OriginOil, BioCentric Energy and PetroAlgae.

Among uses, Japan Airlines had a test flight last month with a jet fuel and biofuels blend including algae oils.

Brazil's MPX Energia plans to trap 10-15 percent of carbon emissions from a coal-fired power plant by feeding them to algae when it starts in 2011.

Plymouth Marine Laboratory says it is taking what we know about algae in the world's oceans and applying it to biotechnology, an approach which differs from much of the commercial research underway, where some claims about the possibilities of algal biofuels are overstated, according to Carole Llewellyn, a marine chemist.

"They (algae) do have a lot of positive attributes but there are a lot of hurdles that have to be overcome before this becomes a commercial reality," Llewellyn said.

Cultivating crops on prime farmland to produce bio-diesel has been widely criticized for helping sustain higher food prices. But many strains of algae grow in sites otherwise uninhabited, from salt-water marshland to deserts.

They can grow 20 to 30 times faster than food crops.

Research in Plymouth includes identifying which strains of algae will produce the most oil or absorb the most CO2 in differing growing mediums.

Algae's requirement of a source of carbon dioxide has also stimulated interest from industrial plants which see the possibility of feeding algal beds with carbon-rich exhaust fumes from their power plants.

Research into replacing petroleum based fuels and products with biodiesel from algae is not new.

The U.S. government began funding research in the 1970s and only discontinued the program in 1996 when it was reported that producing bio-diesel simply cost too much and would not become economic until oil prices rose to $40 a barrel. Prices for Brent crude on Tuesday were $46 a barrel.

Related posts

• Marine algae: biofuel from the sea
  
• Seaweed as biofuel: the pros and cons

Cool and quiet at Tanah Merah

A solo trip on an overcast evening at Tanah Merah. A nice change from the frenetic, hot and terribly tiring trips over the last few days.
The shores of Tanah Merah are thick with Cake sand dollars (Arachnoides placenta)! Each of those little spots is a sand dollar! In the distance is the skyline of our business district and you can even see the 'arms' of our container port bristling on the horizon.
The sand dollars look more like biscuits than cakes. They come in various shades of lilac and purple and some are rather pentagonal while others are more circular.I also came across a skeleton (called the test) of a dead Keyhole sand dollar (Echinodiscus truncatus). Unfortunately, I didn't see a living Keyhole sand dollar. These animals are listed as 'Vulnerable' on our Red List.

Keyhole sand dollars have natural slots, hence their common name. The Echinoblog has a fascinating post on the purpose of these slots, as well as why some sand dollars DON'T have slots. ChrisM explains these very well! Go read his posts for all the fascinating details.

The other animal that dominates Tanah Merah are countless Button snails (Umbonium vestiarum)
Large stretches of the sand bar are pock-marked by dots where the tiny snails are buried just beneath the sand surface. Here, they stay safe while they filter feed, more like bivalves than gastropods. Unfortunately these beautiful animals are also listed as 'Vulnerable' on our Red List. Natural sandy shores like Tanah Merah have been reclaimed and there are now very few such suitable habitats for our Button snails.

And where there are Button snails, you can be almost certain to find Moon snails!These predatory snails burrow in the sand for buried prey. And Button snails are a great meal for them. There were lots and lots of these Ball moon snails (Polinices didyma). The snail has a body that can expand many times larger than its shell and uses it to plough in the sand and to envelope its prey.I probed many furrowed trails in the sand, most of which were left by Ball moon snails, before I came across this one Olive snail (Family Olividae). This smooth bullet-shaped snail also hunts buried prey in the sand.

A surprise find in the sand was this Spiral melongena snail (Pugilina cochlidium).Was it also eating Button snails? These snails normally eat barnacles and clams stuck to hard surfaces and rocky areas, so that's where they are usually found.In the sloshing waves on the seaward face of the sand bar was this large sea anemone. It's probably the Plain sea anemone whose name we have yet to learn.And a very large and active peanut worm (Phylum Sipuncula) was thrashing out of the water. I put it back in the water and it immediately burrowed and disappeared into the sand. Peanut worms are unsegmented worms that are very different from the more commonly seen marine worms.I only saw one lonely little Sand star (Astropecten sp.) with uneven arms. Alas, no other stars.

Large amounts of Sea lettuce seaweed (Ulva sp.) was floating near the shore. These were teeming with life. Little hermit crabs, tiny fishes and other small animals.Like this miniature Moon crab!Other larger ones also twirled in and around the ribbons of seaweeds, and were buried in the sand.A splash and some predator had caught its prey?It was a small shrimp tackling a fish very much bigger than itself! The fish was still alive, but only barely. It struggled feebly while the shrimp hung on. Amazing!As the tide came in, I headed back for the high shores. Some of the rocks on the seawall were thickly coated with zoanthids or colonial anemones (Order Zoanthidea). I've not noticed this before.Way on the high water mark were heaps of tiny little shells and bits of animals that probably lived on the shores. It hints at the fascinating marine life that can be seen on our shores if we take the time to look.

Kok Sheng and Mei Lin visited this shore a few days ago and found far more exciting animals including strange snails, slugs and a special star.

Read their posts for all the details!

• Out of dormancy - Off to Tanah Merah! on the Psychedelic Nature by Mei Lin
• Tanah Merah Surprises! on the wonderful creation by koksheng