Just a few minutes from the Central Business District are the living shores of St John's Island! The intertidal team samples these shores today for the Singapore Marine Fishes Expedition 2016 and find many fishes!
The angling and diving team also work hard to get samples, which are processed in the lab for the fish library.
The team is now getting good at laying the 30m net, even in challenging situations. Having to avoid a drop off at the reef edge, and the rope that marks the edge of the swimming lagoon. We smoothly get into action to deploy the net and rapidly gather the fish to minimise stress to them. Thanks to Kelvin Yong for doing the heavy lifting (and pulling) and keeping us safe!
Cherry takes the opportunity to share about the Expedition as the morning 'office crowd' of workers arrive with the first ferry. These mandarin speaking folk were very keen about the fishes that we found!
Meanwhile, the good folk at
Marine Stewards Singapore have put out a call for volunteers to help obtain samples for the fish library by angling.
Diving to obtain samples also continue. Back at the lab, a stonefish found by the dive team. It is being carefully prepared as a permanent specimen in the fish library.
All the fishes collected are identified by experts and meticulously documented. This includes taking high quality photographs of them. It can be a challenge to photograph the big fishes!
Fish identification often requires close study by experts (who know what to look for) of very small features of an actual fish. Often, a strong microscope is needed as the features are not visible to the naked eye. Accurate identification is hard if not impossible to make from just photographs.
Tomorrow is a day of rest for the team. Much needed to recover from the hectic work. Building a fish library is not easy!
More about the
Singapore Marine Fishes Expedition 2019 with daily and other updates are
posted here.
