Mersing

Yay, finally found the name of the curious species that we saw in Mersing. It's called the Blue Dot Sea Hare, scientific name Bursatella leachii :

Sea slugs.

We saw them while doing the seagrass survey and these little guys were swarming the whole area. They walk in a group of large number, all walking towards the same direction, with a sense of purpose, walking towards the seagrass.

"The have a very clear yet simple sense of purpose in life."

"Yeah."

"....."

"I envy them."

"Me too."

I'm easily excitable so the sight of these creatures are very engrossing. In fact I was pretty well behind of the group because I kept lingering with these cool bunch. They have an opening on their back, from which they secrete bubbles of air and this also I find fascinating. You see, the opening is not visible, not until they part half of their whole back open, and since their body is slushy, when they close this opening, it sticks together and you'll never know it's actually there. Ever saw the 90s horror movie called 'Blob'? Boo if you've never had. I think Blob might be inspired by this creature.

And the fun part was just about to begin. These sea hares, if you accidentally stepped on them, or nudged/poked/disturbed them, as a defense mechanism, they'll secrete a deep red/maroon-ish ink which I also don't know why. I thought it's the same mechanism as the octopus, to decoy or stunt their prey so that they could make a run for their life. But these guys, after secreting the conspicuous-colored ink they stay exactly at the same spot, motionless! Even if they make a run for it, I doubt they would go far. They are just selow. Haihhh. Which led me to thinking that perhaps the ink is poisonous. Upon googling later, I found out that they are not. --'' So it's just basically a dramatic act.

Gambar hiasan. Ini sea slug species lain tapi color ink tu sama.

When I found out that the innk is not poisonous, the next day, I might have accidentally nudged/poked them more times than is normal.... Sorry dudes! 

Next creature is this saddle carpet anemone. They are so pretty to look at! And they are abundant in the shallow water along the Mersing shoreline. I call them 'Semalu Laut' because yerp, you guess it, if you again, accidentally nudged/poked/stepped on them, they'll recoil until what's left is a tiny gooey ball the size of your fist, 20 times smaller than their initial size. Locals say they eat this, cutting them into thin slices and fry them with salt and pepper, jadi keropok.

Sadlle carpet anemone.

And the seagrass. The reason that we were there in the first place. They cover a huge area along the stretch of the coastline. And half of it is either dying or unhealthy. Imagine the setting like 10 years ago. Must have been a sight back then. But there's no dugong feeding trail on the seagrass carpet though. Perhaps because the low tide is very low, and the water is not that deep even during high tide. During low tide, you can (technically) walk towards the closest island, Pulau Setindan from the beach on mainland. I said technically because it'll take you forever because you'll keep getting stuck in the mud. But I made it. With bruises and blisters due to the cheap uncomfortable boots.

The water is muddy and murky close to the shoreline but as you drift away about 1-2 km into the sea, you'll get clear blue water. No wonder, Mersing is quite close to Tioman.

Colleagues that did the coral survey said that several small islands near Mersing boast some of the rare species. But they are also dying. It's sad actually. Mersing feels like a burial site for all these amazing creatures.

There's talk of replanting the seagrass and coral rehabilitation. I sure hope something will be done, something drastic, a draconian measure if you will, with the best intention of preserving the ecology here, not just something for the sake of having it written on paper, just for show.

P.s : All photos are sourced from the internet.