Marine Biology: st john's island

Some snail thing or something

Organisms living on this huge rock

PERIWINKLES (Littorina littorea)

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
(unranked):	clade Caenogastropoda clade Hypsogastropoda clade Littorinimorpha
Superfamily:	Littorinoidea
Family:	Littorinidae
Genus:	Littorina
Species:	Littorina littorea
Binomial name
*Littorina littorea* (Linnaeus, 1758)^[1]

Barnacles (infraclass Cirripedia)

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Crustacea
Class:	Maxillopoda
Subclass:	Thecostraca
Infraclass:	Cirripedia Burmeister, 1834

Hermodice carunculata

Hermodice carunculata (commonly known as bearded fireworm)

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Annelida
Class:	"Polychaeta"
Order:	Aciculata
Family:	Amphinomidae
Genus:	Hermodice
Species:	H. carunculata
Binomial name
*Hermodice carunculata* (Pallas, 1766)

Sea cucumbers!

Sea cucumbers (class Holothuroidea)

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Echinodermata
Subphylum:	Echinozoa
Class:	Holothuroidea de Blainville, 1834

Macrophthalmus sp. ( also known as Sentinel Crab)

Phylum Arthropoda > Subphylum Crustacea > Class Malacostraca > Order Decapoda > Brachyurans > Superfamily Ocypodoidea

Protruding eyes which are there telltale signs

Goby Fish

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Perciformes
Suborder:	Gobioidei
Family:	Gobiidae

Atergatis integerrimus

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Perciformes
Suborder:	Gobioidei
Family:	Gobiidae

(commonly known as red egg crab)

Where seen? This colourful round crab can be very commonly seen on many of our shores in coral rubble areas and reefs. Slow moving, it usually hides under large coral rubble pieces, but can be quite active at night.

Features: Body width 8-10cm. Large oval body that is reddish brown, orangey to bright red, with small white spots all over. Large pincers have black tips that are spoon-shaped. Males may have larger claws. Like most other Xanthid crabs, it is highly poisonous and should not be eaten.

Tiger tailed Seahorse :D

More details in http://jawch.blogspot.sg/2012/08/hippocampus-sp.html
Tiger-Tailed Seahorse

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Gasterosteiformes
Family:	Syngnathidae
Genus:	Hippocampus
Species:	H. comes

VERY CUTE seahorse moving around with propulsion

Moon snail shell!

More details in http://jawch.blogspot.sg/2012/07/blog-post_3658.html Insteresting to see it again :)

Holothuria atra

Holothuria atra (commonly known as Black sea cucumber)

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Echinodermata
Class:	Holothuroidea
Order:	Aspidochirotida
Family:	Holothuriidae
Genus:	Holothuria
Species:	H. atra
Binomial name
*Holothuria atra* Jaeger, 1833 ^[1]

Brittle stars

More details in http://jawch.blogspot.sg/2012/07/blog-post_4806.html a sea star like any other, though quite brittle :/

Sea urchin

Sea urchins (phylum echinoderm )

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Echinodermata
Subphylum:	Echinozoa
Class:	Echinoidea Leske, 1778

very beautiful little thing which is similar to star fishes

Portunus pelagicus

More details in http://jawch.blogspot.sg/2012/07/portunus-pelagicus-more-commonly-known.html

Goby

Goby (family Gobiidae)

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Perciformes
Suborder:	Gobioidei
Family:	Gobiidae Regan, 1911

another one :D, a very important species in this ecosystem

Pile of worm egested by-products/poop

Snail

A snail

Chiton

Chiton, it has segmented shells, and is trying to hide itself from the heat.

Goby

Goby, again

Sea Urchin

St John's Island

Again we had to wake up early for this trip to St John's Island. We had to reach school at 4.15 which is a far cry from 9.15 the previous week :( We were half-zombies in both the bus and the boat ride but luckily the boat ride this time was only half an hour as St John's Island is closer to the Singapore mainland.

It was past 5.30 by the time we reached St. John's island and by the time we changed into our booties and prepared for the intertidal walk, it was already 6. Sunrise was only until another 40 minutes so it was extremely dark and we had to use multiple torchlights to illuminate the path and slowly thread our way through the rocky environment. At one point, we even had to scale down a rocky slope to reach the shoreline area in pitch darkness if not for the torchlight ._. We were really scared something bad was going to happen given to slipperyness due to algae overgrowth but thakfully nothing did.

For this trip, our guides wanted to give us more hands on experience so we were given gloves and water containers to find and retrieve marine organisms that we come across on our own.

Our guides also did not want to talk much and let us do the explaining ourselves. We felt we did a pretty good job trying to explain the marine organisms under a rock for example such as their mode of feeding and reproduction by its appearance and structure. Many of these organisms clump together in a small group for survival purposes. As they say, united we stand, divided we fall.

St John Island is pretty different from our previous two visits to Pulau Semakau and Pulau Hantu. As this is a rocky shore, the organisms we come across will no doubt be slightly different. With the effect of the tides in a rocky shore, the sea brings plankton and broken organic matter in with each tide. The availability of light and nutrient levels means that producers such as algae can grow effectively which will benefit the food web. The rocky outposts also can provide an area of refuge for marine organisms.

Many marine organisms use shells, holdfasts or a thick mucous layer to provide stability against strong wave actions that can result in desiccation or dehydration especially during low tides. The crevices in the rocks in the shores can also contribute to being containers of pollution due to human action. As such there are many advantages and disadvantages of living in a rocky shore but the organisms here have adapted to this.