Discovering Sudong

In late July, a couple of divers including myself, made a visit to the waters surrounding Sudong. The highlight of that dive is plastered right here as the first image of this post. A tigertail seahorse was fastened safely amongst sponges, hydriods and hard coral. Photographing it wasn't much fun because it didn't really like being photographed, so a video was also shot.

Icon seastars were observed several times along the sandy seabed..

Along with hordes of feather stars clinging tightly onto their whip corals or sea fans that grew along the seabed or along the side of vertical structures.

Some of the seafans in the area were particularly large. Seafans tend to proliferate well in areas swept with good currents.

There were also plenty of photogenic nudibranchs - unlike the seahorse, these creatures, also known as sea slugs, didn't seem to have much of a problem being photographed! You can tell when they are a bit cautious though when they retract their rhinophores. It is said that nudibranches use their rhinophores to sense and detect odours or pheromones in the water.

Again, tons of feather stars, also known as crinoids..

There were even really LARGE crinoids! This one would be the largest I've seen in local waters. Crinoids use their tentacles to sift food out of the passing water. They can also detatch themselves to swim to a new and more favourable hunting spot if necessary. Often you can find well-camouflaged squat lobsters hidden within a crinoid.

There was also an inconspicuous False scorpionfish hiding amongst the hydriods. The Flase scorpionfish is actually a member of the grouper family, unlike true scorpionfish.

And to top off the day of wonderful diving in Singapore, a beautiful sunset. We seldom get to appreciate such sunsets from the mainland, where the horizon is obstructed with skyscrapers aplenty - one of the big advantages of travelling out to sea...

See more pictures from the dive by other divers!