Just after sunrise, we encounter smooth otters on Chek Jawa! There were three of them, trotting along the edge of the mangroves!
I was out on the
TeamSeagrass monitoring trip and with
Dr Daphne to look at the sea anemones there.
Later, as we checked out the mangroves for sea anemones, I came across the tracks of the otters!
Smooth otters (
Lutrogale perspicillata) have been sighted at Chek Jawa before, but this is my first time seeing them for myself. Andy has a
video clip of the otters at Chek Jawa on his blog.
As we surveyed Chek Jawa, we also saw several furrows that might be
dugong feeding trails. Some of these furrows were quite close to the boardwalk. Does this mean we might get a glimpse of dugongs feeding at high tide from the boardwalk? Wow!
I also took the opportunity to quickly check up on the coral rubble area at Chek Jawa. There were many colourful
swimming crabs (Family Portunidae). I also saw one
Spoon pincer crab (
Leptodius sp.) and several
Stone crabs (
Myomenippe hardwicki).
I came across several different kinds of fishes including a small
Copperband butterflyfish (
Chelmon rostratus), a
Painted scorpionfish (
Parascorpaena picta), several
eeltail catfishes (Family Plotosidae), several
Toadfishes (Family Batrachoididae) lurking under the rubble. Also some
halfbeaks (Family Hemiramphidae) and many little
gobies (Family Gobiidae).
I saw one Beige sea cucumber, a few
Ball sea cucumbers were out of the ground (
Phyllophorus sp.), some
Orange sea cucumbers and many
Thorny sea cucumbers (
Colochirus quadrangularis).
There were many
Biscuit sea stars (
Goniodiscaster scaber) large and small, and several
Cake sea star (
Anthenea aspera) including an orange one. I also saw some
Plain sand stars (
Astropecten sp.). Chay Hoon saw a small
Knobbly sea star (
Protoreaster nodosus). I didn't come across any sea urchins or any
Common sea star (
Archaster typicus).
I saw one healthy sea fan. It was a
Skinny sea fan encrusted with
Tiny colourful brittlestars (
Ophiothela danae). There was one
Candelabra sea fan which was half dead.
I saw one
flowery sea pen (Family Veretillidae). There were many
cerianthids of various colours.
The only flatworm I saw was the
Blue-lined flatworm (
Pseudoceros sp.). I also saw several fan worms (Family Sabellidae), both the
brown banded ones and
orange ones.
Some parts of the coral rubble area were colourful with marine creatures.
Here and there, I saw small clumps of colourful
sponges. But the coral rubble is mostly bare of encrustations.
I came across three colonies of hard coral, probably all
Pore hard coral (
Porites sp.) and one small patch of
Zebra coral (
Oulastrea crispata).
I feel that the coral rubble area is more or less similar to what I saw during my most recent look at this area in
October 2010. It has not recovered to what I remember it before the
mass deaths in 2007 possibly due to high rainfall. This shore was also affected by the
oil spill in May 2010. Hopefully, over time, it will recover to what I saw in 2002.
 |
| The sponge encrusted coral rubble area in 2002 |
Meanwhile, I feel it's important to keep checking up on Chek Jawa.
More
about Chek Jawa, how to get there, what to see and do and walks you can join.
More about
the sea anemones we saw at Chek Jawa with Dr Daphne.
Posts by others on this trip
