Sampling on 25 Feb

As usual, I was there doing my quadrat samplings... The tide wasn't the best: 0.4m @ 1833h, but I had to make do... After the long journey (usually by foot!!!) into the park, morale usually drops a little before I start walking the shore... heheh... but the wildlife that appears in front of me never fails to be a real morale booster!

Although not much of the reef flat was exposed today, I still managed to catch this:


Goniastrea sp. boulder coral... wow...

This particular genus isn't as hard to ID. Just look closely at the walls. As the septa runs down towards the centre of the corallite, if there are like lobes (paliform lobes), then confirm is the one! Can roughly make it out in this pic:



Next up was this interesting sea slug, quite big one some more... almost 8cm!



The icing on the cake:


Octopus sp.

When this creature was spotted, it was squirting water out of their siphons, I guess to circulate water through the gills for them to breathe. This action is also used for jet-propulsion in locomotion. Take a closer look at the suckers lining its arms... impressive... have to be strong to grip their prey!

And there weren't just one octopus, there was another one spotted nearby, though I din get a good shot at it... argghhh...

Here ends another day (or night more like it...) at the beach... amazed... again...