It has been years back since I visited the intertidal area at Changi Beach, and I'm glad to be back. This is one of my favourite intertidal spots on mainland Singapore. The following photos are taken by and credited to my good friend Fiona.
There is a good batch of seagrass bed at the shore, and that is where most of the marine diversity is found. Most distinctive and numerous are two species of pink cucumbers, the Pink Warty Sea Cucumber and the Thorny Sea Cucumber. They are filter feeders, and will extend their tentacles when submerged, to extract nutrients from the sea.
We also found several Carpet Anemones. Their tentacles are sticky and feed off animals which are caught by the tentacles and are passed to their central oral cavity to be consumed.
There were several large Noble Volute shells, but unfortunately the snail is long gone. However, these shells are never wasted as the large Orange-Striped Hermit Crabs are often found inhabiting them, a treasure I presume since large empty shells like these are hard to come by.
It took much wading to get across to a lone island created by the low tide and I was glad to finally see a live Noble Volute. This is a carnivorous snail that hunts other snails or bivalves.
The star of the days are of course the star fishes! On the left is a Sand Star that often burrows in the sand. On the right, is a baby Knobbly Sea Star. It can grow up to 30cm!
There's much to be done to protect our remaining wildlife, from the land to our shores. It's always heart-breaking to see people and their children carrying containers to collect these animals. We should bear in mind that to always take nothing but pictures and memories, so that they will always be here for everyone to marvel and appreciate. That being said, on the other hand, it is also heartening to see a few groups of youngsters picking trash along the beach. Bravo!