Raffles Lighthouse

Went to Raffles Lighthouse area yesterday after collecting my trial batch of cement cuboids fr St John's, Jani, Marco, Michelle and Wai were supposed to go screw Jani's tiles dn.... being the only non-diver, the best that I cld do was like snorkel and try my best to see stuff... First off, there was the 'leisure' dive/snorkel near the jetty area. Marco was like a kid who just got his Christmas presents when he saw the number of fishies ^^ Since I cld barely make out their shapes, can really tell wat they were, except for like angelfishies.... The boatmen were having a heyday catching loads of nicely sized fishies for cooking.... Visibility was actually pretty decent, ard 3-4m (hazarding a guess since I can't really estimate distances underwater..) Pretty exciting being able to see corals in home waters, and near islands that I have nv been to too! First thing is to get dive license, then join BWVs... Was nearer the reef crest, so mainly boulder formed ones and encrusting ones.... All the guck we haf in our waters *sigh* Was stung a couple of times on my right arm but nothing serious, tho one of those stings left a slight cut... Got some weird cuts on my left leg, and the prob w getting cuts in the sea is that (1) they dun scab over properly (2) u dun notice the cut til u are out of water and realise u are dripping blood (thank goodness that there are no shark sightings in SG) One thing that startled me was the sudden appearance of salps (Planktonic tunicates; small, transparent, barred-shaped free-swimming planktonic animals belonging to the Subphylum Urochordata [tunicates], Class Thaliaca.) that were basically sprouting out from the dark greenish SG waters below..... Little jelly like stuff nicely lined up in pairs just EVERYWHERE.... Thot they were some jellyfish spawning event or sth at first but since they din sting.... Pretty amazing seeing all those little blobby salps just floating everywhere.... They ARE actually kinda cute, once u get over the initial surprise of seeing them floating ard ^^ Salp boom!! Undergg sexual phase, so kinda colonial ^^

[Salp linkies]
(1) Salps and Ctenophores
(2) The Salps (class Thalicea)
(3) Australian Antarctic Divisions - Salps
(4) Salps

My poor knees are slightly burnt... from the boatride, as well as dangling my legs into the water when we were on the other side of Raffles Lighthouse, and waiting for the currents to die dn.... Next outing wld be to Underwater World on Friday, to go see the Pocillopora.... Wonder if I shld just go for a joyride on Sat when Jani goes dn again.... Looking at me, u prob wldn't figure out that it's actually reading week ^^ heehee.... Guess I shld head home and start on mugging Jap... Still need to continue w DNA extraction at the environmental engineering lab tmr (dun ask y I am not doing it in sci... long story... but the gd thing is that (1) the prof is SUPER nice (2) he has worked on biofilm and their relation to recruitment of marine inverts, so...)