A day out at Kusu Island (1 March 2006)

Accompanied Ria and the Wild Films crew to Kusu Island during the early March lowtide together with a bunch of students from Duke University and their professor, Dr Dan Rittschof.

That was great fun! It was almost like attending an outdoor marine biology class, and Dr Rittschof provided several fascinating details on the marine life that we found on the inter-tidal reef flat. I was so absorbed and caught up in trying to distill as much information as I could that I finally gave up trying to take pretty pictures at the same time :).

But managed to take a few below, happy viewing!

Soft corals of Kusu

See how pretty they are in water with their polyps out!

The moon snail- placid-looking but a ferocious predator of smaller snails

For some reason, the tidal pools seem to be full of flatworms, all trying to meet each other? Maybe the water was full of pheromones, or the new moon is just such a romantic time.

Love is in the air….

…And for these nudibranchs too!

We found a nice big sea hare next to the jetty pillar to round off the evening. This one squirts purple ink!

Up on shore, a ghost crab freezes in the glare of our torchlights. A rare sight!