Sunday, February 25, 2007

WOW At Pulau Hantu!!!.....

First leisure dive of the year! Joined The Hantu Bloggers diving at Pulau Hantu's North Jetty this morning.

There's only one word that can express what we saw today. It's WOW!!!

Of course, thanks to Hui Bing (my buddy and volunteer Reef Xplore's guide) for finding some of the amazing stuffs.

So I shall not keep you waiting.....Here's what we saw:


SHARK!!! Yes finally, a shark for me at Pulau Hantu!!! I was simply speechless and excited! Never been so close with one in the wild underwater.

It's about a meter long. I have to take the head, body and tail separately cos I don't have a wide angle. But still managed to get a shot of the whole fish after I back off abit. So what kind of shark is this? Anyone can help with the ID?



Then, it's my first encounter with a BIG Cuttlefish! It's about 50cm long!




And here's the amazing part; It was depositing her EGGS (the white stuffs) into spaces among a coral! Gosh!!!



Next is a juvenile Longfin Batfish. Wonder if it's the one that Debby had captured on video during last Hantu Bloggers dive?



When we were at the jetty's pillars, we saw this Seahorse! It's tummy looks swollen. A pregnant Seahorse Papa?



There's a lot of Flatworms out and about today.



And a pair was mating!



Flatworms are hermaphrodites. This mean that each flatworm has both male and female reproduction organs or in another words, produces eggs and sperm. So when two flatworms mate, they exchange sperm and both become fertilized. Some flatworms, such as the above Pseudobiceros hancockanus, engage in penis (it's the white thingy that you see sticking out from the underside of the flatworms) fencing. The two will fight and try to pierce the skin of the other with their penises to be the first to inseminate the other. The loser will then have to carry and nourish the eggs.

And of course, a good Hantu dive for me must be completed with my favourite Nudibranchs. And today is a fruitful day.



Here's the phyllidia ocellata (orange one), phyllidia sp, pteraeolidia ianthina(Blue Dragon Nudibranch), flabellina sp, glossodoris atromarginata (yellow one) and a dermatobranchus sp.

Then it's bornella sp.



and a video showing how it swim.



Last but not least, Hui Bing and I came across two unidentified Nudibranchs. This one by Hui Bing and it's less than 1cm long.



And towards the end of my second dive, I saw this one.





Anyone would like to shed some lights one their ID?

9 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The bornella swimming is soooo cute. hope to see more when we go again :)

February 26, 2007 11:17 AM  
Blogger juanicths said...

wah~~~ can't wait to dive there for the anniversary dive in mar!!!

BTW, think the shark is a bamboo shark

February 27, 2007 9:50 AM  
Blogger FirstFern said...

Wah, cannot believe all this was at Hantu!! Unreal :) Thanks for sharing.

February 27, 2007 11:27 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's a nurse shark

February 27, 2007 4:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks all for your comments. :O)

February 28, 2007 5:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i think it's bamboo shark, there's the faint pattern on its body and the fins looks like the one drawn on the common marine fishes of spore book.

February 28, 2007 7:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

HB: You might be right.. but have to see how big is the shark since I've not heard bamboo sharks growing to 3m length.

March 02, 2007 10:07 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is an adult Grey Bamboo Shark (Chiloscyllium punctatum). It grows to length of just up to over 1 meter. Its adult colour ranges from copper brown to pinkish grey. The distinctive trait to differentiate Bamboos from Nurse Sharks is clearly defined in your photographs... take a closer look at the faint bands on its body from the 1st dorsal fin to the end of its tail(like wat hb described). These bands are the distinct marked livery of juvenile bamboo sharks and they carry faint evidence of these bands into adulthood...

I think the Flabellina sp. on the hydroid is Flabellina rubrolineata, judging from the red line running down each of its cerata..

March 04, 2007 12:22 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

viz looked pretty ok. i thought the north jetty was closed to diving these days since work began on bukom/busing?

March 05, 2007 10:29 AM  

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