Tuesday, February 08, 2005
NIGHT DIVE! off Saint' John's Jetty!
This is actually a back log... I dived at the Saint John's Island jetty on the night of the 2nd of Feb!
Anyway, the day before, Dionne and I finally completed our final project report! So I was SO wanting to do something fun and exciting! Which, as usual, was decided upon quite on the last minute.
All our barangs (and Abby) for just ONE NIGHT'S stay...mostly it's JIM's (videographer).>
What else more exciting than a NIGHT DIVE in Singapore...and a JETTY DIVE to boot!
I am a chicken. I admit. I HATE diving in places with man-made structures like jetties and wrecks. It's eerie. It's scary. It makes my skin crawl. Somemore, it's at NIGHT. Brrr....although I might not look it, I had moths (it's night time see...) in my stomach...
At least I think I'm still better than JIM. Jim is a videographer who is documenting fluorescence for Dr. Elizabeth Taylor from TMSI. He is also an avid videographer of Singapore waters! Cool eh... Or should I say...COLD. HE WAS WEARING A DRY SUIT FOR GOODNESS SAKE!
JIM IN A DRY SUIT! IN SINGAPORE!! The water was like 28 degrees lah... maybe 27 at least.
But the VIS was gorgeous! We went down to 9m and it was still so clear! I think a good approximation would be AT LEAST 3m. Fantastic...
So we went down...and shot fluorescence! THIS is what fluorescence looks like. You have to use a blue filter and a yellow filter to be able to see the nice flowing effect... BTW, don't mistake FLUORESCENCE (emitting light during exposure to radiation from an external source) with BIOLUMINESCENCE (emit light naturally, on its own).
A normal coral in normal white light.
With the BLUE filter.
With the YELLOW filter...you only see the part that fluoresces
More glowing corals!
A mushroom coral flurorescing...
Pectinia sp.
Turbinaria sp.
And ZOANTHIDS glow too!!!
And Tse-Lynn and I were about to take the photo of a nice Tubastrea sp. (cave coral) coral, I saw a silhoette of something....which....kiinnnnndddddaaaa lookkkksss like a.... SEAHOOORRSEEE!!!!!!!!!
So I was like going MMMMMM....MMMM..MMM...MMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!MMMMM!!!!! (translate: SEAAA....HOOOORRSSEE...SEEEAAA!!!!! HOOORSEE!!!!!)
And this Tse-Lynn was so nonchalant. She kept shining the blue light and didn't even take her camera! (I later found out she though I was getting excited at the fluorescing sponge next to it...)
Anyway, the seahorse nicely drapped itself around the cave coral like so:
MMMM!!!! MMMMM!!!!
AND what more, IT WAS PREGNANT!!!!
Yes, it fell into a cloud of silt below the cave coral...
After that... I was SOOO ready to explore every nook and cranny of the darn jetty!!! And look what else we found!!!!
Pretty ain't it...
--------COMMERCIAL BREAK---------
COMING SOON! AKAN DATANG!
THE POLYCLAD FLATWORM WHO TRIED...
Once upon a time, there was a little polyclad flatworm...travelling as happy as a bee...
"Lalalala...lalala...OH NO ARGHHH What is this HUGE GAP DOING HERE!! I must, I must cross it...I muuussttt...
"Hoookaayy... let's see now..."
"STREEETTCCCHHH!!!!!!! SSSTTREEETTCCHHH!!!!!"
"URRGHHHH!!!! UuuuuuUUUrrrrgghHHHH!!!!"
"....ahh forget it... I'll just go the long way...it's too much work"
THE END
--------------------------NOW BACK TO THE PROGRAMME--------------------------------
Yes... and there were LOADS of other things we saw!! LIKE THESE!!!
A nice cute pipefish....this thing fluoresces too ya know!
Cute little crab....
AND TWO COWRIES!!!!!! SO SHIINNNYYYYYY!!!! SHINY SHINY SHINY!!!
Your copper banded butterfly fish
This damselfish wasn't scared at all!!! I was SOOO NEAAARR to it!!
Awww isn't this baby lizardfish cuuutteee!!!
A cloud of hydroids (which stung me VERY badly on my hand...can still see the scars), home to TONNES of these tiny spider crabs!
And at night...corals are OUT and they look different from during the day! It's SO PRETTY!!!! The polyps are out!
Tubastrea sp.
And at night... CORAL WAR is ongoing!! Competing for food and/or space and warding off competitors, some corals have what is known as SWEEPER TENTACLES.
Corals can have longer fighting polyps which can be even 5 times longer than common ones. Fighting polyps have fighting (sweeper) tentacles much longer than common ones. These sweeper tentacles are armed with many more nematocysts (stinging cells) than normal coral polyps.
Essentially, they kill/injure whatever coral/algae that is within these tentacle's range. What you see in the day is just probably a border of dead coral between, say, two corals... But AT NIGHT, it's when the ACTION is all happening!
Sweeper tentacles...going for another coral...
Closer view...
Even CLOSER!!! Look at them sweeper tentacles!
And after an hour plus dive, we surfaced and ABBY prepared us some cut fruits to replace the energy we shivered off....
Abby, Jim and Tse-Lynn...
AFTER THIS DIVE! I can safely say I would LOVE to dive more at JETTIES! Especially if you combine with the last RAFFLES LIGHTHOUSE dive. ¶ 3:11 pm
Anyway, the day before, Dionne and I finally completed our final project report! So I was SO wanting to do something fun and exciting! Which, as usual, was decided upon quite on the last minute.
All our barangs (and Abby) for just ONE NIGHT'S stay...mostly it's JIM's (videographer).>
What else more exciting than a NIGHT DIVE in Singapore...and a JETTY DIVE to boot!
I am a chicken. I admit. I HATE diving in places with man-made structures like jetties and wrecks. It's eerie. It's scary. It makes my skin crawl. Somemore, it's at NIGHT. Brrr....although I might not look it, I had moths (it's night time see...) in my stomach...
At least I think I'm still better than JIM. Jim is a videographer who is documenting fluorescence for Dr. Elizabeth Taylor from TMSI. He is also an avid videographer of Singapore waters! Cool eh... Or should I say...COLD. HE WAS WEARING A DRY SUIT FOR GOODNESS SAKE!
JIM IN A DRY SUIT! IN SINGAPORE!! The water was like 28 degrees lah... maybe 27 at least.
But the VIS was gorgeous! We went down to 9m and it was still so clear! I think a good approximation would be AT LEAST 3m. Fantastic...
So we went down...and shot fluorescence! THIS is what fluorescence looks like. You have to use a blue filter and a yellow filter to be able to see the nice flowing effect... BTW, don't mistake FLUORESCENCE (emitting light during exposure to radiation from an external source) with BIOLUMINESCENCE (emit light naturally, on its own).
A normal coral in normal white light.
With the BLUE filter.
With the YELLOW filter...you only see the part that fluoresces
More glowing corals!
A mushroom coral flurorescing...
Pectinia sp.
Turbinaria sp.
And ZOANTHIDS glow too!!!
And Tse-Lynn and I were about to take the photo of a nice Tubastrea sp. (cave coral) coral, I saw a silhoette of something....which....kiinnnnndddddaaaa lookkkksss like a.... SEAHOOORRSEEE!!!!!!!!!
So I was like going MMMMMM....MMMM..MMM...MMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!MMMMM!!!!! (translate: SEAAA....HOOOORRSSEE...SEEEAAA!!!!! HOOORSEE!!!!!)
And this Tse-Lynn was so nonchalant. She kept shining the blue light and didn't even take her camera! (I later found out she though I was getting excited at the fluorescing sponge next to it...)
Anyway, the seahorse nicely drapped itself around the cave coral like so:
MMMM!!!! MMMMM!!!!
AND what more, IT WAS PREGNANT!!!!
Yes, it fell into a cloud of silt below the cave coral...
After that... I was SOOO ready to explore every nook and cranny of the darn jetty!!! And look what else we found!!!!
Pretty ain't it...
--------COMMERCIAL BREAK---------
COMING SOON! AKAN DATANG!
Once upon a time, there was a little polyclad flatworm...travelling as happy as a bee...
"Lalalala...lalala...OH NO ARGHHH What is this HUGE GAP DOING HERE!! I must, I must cross it...I muuussttt...
"Hoookaayy... let's see now..."
"STREEETTCCCHHH!!!!!!! SSSTTREEETTCCHHH!!!!!"
"URRGHHHH!!!! UuuuuuUUUrrrrgghHHHH!!!!"
"....ahh forget it... I'll just go the long way...it's too much work"
--------------------------NOW BACK TO THE PROGRAMME--------------------------------
Yes... and there were LOADS of other things we saw!! LIKE THESE!!!
A nice cute pipefish....this thing fluoresces too ya know!
Cute little crab....
AND TWO COWRIES!!!!!! SO SHIINNNYYYYYY!!!! SHINY SHINY SHINY!!!
Your copper banded butterfly fish
This damselfish wasn't scared at all!!! I was SOOO NEAAARR to it!!
Awww isn't this baby lizardfish cuuutteee!!!
A cloud of hydroids (which stung me VERY badly on my hand...can still see the scars), home to TONNES of these tiny spider crabs!
And at night...corals are OUT and they look different from during the day! It's SO PRETTY!!!! The polyps are out!
Tubastrea sp.
And at night... CORAL WAR is ongoing!! Competing for food and/or space and warding off competitors, some corals have what is known as SWEEPER TENTACLES.
Corals can have longer fighting polyps which can be even 5 times longer than common ones. Fighting polyps have fighting (sweeper) tentacles much longer than common ones. These sweeper tentacles are armed with many more nematocysts (stinging cells) than normal coral polyps.
Essentially, they kill/injure whatever coral/algae that is within these tentacle's range. What you see in the day is just probably a border of dead coral between, say, two corals... But AT NIGHT, it's when the ACTION is all happening!
Sweeper tentacles...going for another coral...
Closer view...
Even CLOSER!!! Look at them sweeper tentacles!
And after an hour plus dive, we surfaced and ABBY prepared us some cut fruits to replace the energy we shivered off....
Abby, Jim and Tse-Lynn...
AFTER THIS DIVE! I can safely say I would LOVE to dive more at JETTIES! Especially if you combine with the last RAFFLES LIGHTHOUSE dive. ¶ 3:11 pm
