Slugging at St John's

I love pre-dawn trips and the sun rise is one of the many reasons why.

This morning we visited St John's island again and this time, I wanted to explore more of the reef since the last visit ended with rain. This time I managed to cover the reef closest to the jetty but wtf my camera battery dies just as I reached the end.

It was a sluggy morning! Nudibranchs were all out and about.

Chay Hoon's bionic eyes led to many micro-finds, especially tiny tiny slugs. Those I don't even bother with, and leave it to the people with the macro lenses to tackle. Here, she spotted a nudibranch that was grazing on sea grapes!

I saw 2 of these large nudibranchs beached and looking very sad. James helped rescue them.

Back in water, they looked relaxed and much more beautiful. Look at those gills!


More nudis! They are so gorgeous.

A nice fat polka-dotted nudibranch.

James spotted these tiny nuzzling pyjama-striped nudibranchs.

There were also a number of these flat worms.

A scorpionfish? It hid in very murky water so we couldn't get a decent picture of it.

Fan worms were also quite common here.

Another flat worm.

There were many other feisty creatures! This shy giant reef worm barely let me focus on him before he retreated speedily with a mouthful of sargassum!

There were also many black-lipped conches on this shore.

Octopussies!


This is the strange crab I was talking about. I don't know if it was a moult since I didn't poke it.

I saw so many of these "condylactus not"s!! I love these guys. They are so elusive and shy.



There were also many other interesting anemones!

The variation of frilly anemones is quite amazing.





And then the camera died. I'm sure the others in the team would have lots more to share about this trip!