Having been on many dives organized by my friends. I have decided to organize one this month because the organized dives fell on dates that were bad for me. Took some effort, but helpful friends took most of my concerns away.
When we arrived at RSYC, our hopes were high, the water was clear in the marina. Reliable Mr Yeo had decided to give his nephew the responsibility of driving our boat. It was nice to know that there will be a successor to Mr Yeo when he retires.
As we arrived on our first dive, the 'capture and kill' team from Nparks also arrived to collect samples of marine life. This project gives me mixed feelings. I was a student (we sometimes called ourselves slaves) working in the Reef Ecology Study Lab in the days of 1986 to 1989, we collected fragments of every coral along the transect line for identification. There were no other way at that time as coral were only identified by their skeletons. So, although I understand that our national marine life collection is so badly in need of an update (pictures and videos can only do so much), I cannot help but feel sad to see so many marine animals martyred for the progress (or even just maintaining) the status of local marine science.
We descended into a murky waters of 2 metres. Needless to say, not many marine critters were spotted and there were people loosing buddies :P
Time of entry 10:57
Temperature 30 Deg C
Depth 11.3 metres
Dive Time 46 Minutes
Air at entry 3000 psi
Air remaining 900 psi
For our second dive, we went to the jetty of Pulau Hantu Kechil. Visibility was slightly better by about half a metre. The abandonment of 3-some buddies were a great help in the problems of lost buddies.
Time of entry 12:57
Temperature- 30 Deg C
Depth 9.5 metres
Dive Time 68 Minutes
Air at entry 3000 psi
Air remaining 1200 psi
We were greeted by a large File Fish on arriving at the bottom.
A slight current helped to carry us on the direction we were traveling. It was nice to just maintain posture and float along. There were tube worms, big Phyllidia nudibranchs and Blue Dragons.
Phyllidia pustulosa
Phyllidia varicosa
Flabellina rubrolineata
It was sad to see some bleached coral. This Goniopora polyp seemed to have lost its ability to retract.
On the bright side, for the first time, I saw 2 synaptid sea cucumber in our waters.
To cap the day's dives off, a cushion star were there beside the pillar of the Hantu jetty.
Other divers reported 3 seahorses, a flounder and an octopus.
Although it will be really great if we could see lots of animals and took lots of pictures, I like to think that the marine life collection team will see as little as us and therefore, collect and kill less of these wonderful citizens of Pulau Hantu.
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