100615 Tanah Merah

Some oily surface sheen remains and about a third of the hard coral (mostly boulder Favid) were bleached or discolored. The Goniopora and Turbinaria were fine along with most of the Acropora. Almost all the Pocillopora were bleached.

Highly treacherous shore with many slippery surfaces and shaky footholds. Didn't dare to take out my 40D so all shots done with D10 and lit with my torch.

Healthy coral :

Boulder favid.


Bracket mushroom hard coral?


Pavona sp..


Turbinaria sp..


Acropora sp..


Pectinia sp..


Mussidae.


Pachyseris sp..


Goniopora sp..


Fungiidae.

Bleached/discolored coral :



Boulder favid.


Porites?


Pinkish favid.


Pocillopora sp..


Fungiidae.



Other organisms we happened to see :

Eriphia ferox.


Alcyoniidae.


Kok Sheng found a pair of tomato anemonefish (Amphiprion frenatus) in a bleached anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor).

He also found a large table of Acropora with many commensals in it :

Tetralia negrolineata.


Coralliocaris graminea.


Cymo andreossyi.

Some of the other Acropora also had commensals :

Gobiodon histrio.

Besides Acropora, Pocillopora also had crabs in them :

Cymo andreossyi in Pocillopora.