Treasure Hunt at Bali

Being the largest tourist destination in Indonesia - Bali is no stranger to those who seek spectacular mountain scenery, beautiful beaches, friendly people, scuba diving, etc.

Since Bali is part of the coral triangle, there is no surprise Bali being one of the favorite diving destination due to its rich marine biodiversity. Well, one may enjoy the rich marine biodiversity by scuba diving or alternatively, visit Bali when the tide is at the lowest. Refer to the tide table & pick a date that Bali is experiencing spring low tide. During spring low tide, the inter-tidal area that usually cover with sea water of up to few meters deep will be exposed and remain accessible up to 3 hours before the tide return.

I did another inter-tidal walk at Bali last November and I choose Sanur an area that with lots of hotel/resort to choose from. Based on the tide table, the tide will be lowest at 7.30am. We plan to go to the inter-tidal area around 6.30am but was delayed till 7.00am due to light rain.

The tide is already quite low when we reach the Sanur beach.

The colourful traditional fishing boat known as 'jukung' line up at the shore, a great subject for photograph.

 The tide is still going down as I head to the inter-tidal area.

I'm now in the middle of the ocean! I'm walking instead of swimming in the seagrass meadows! Is time to pay attention to slight movement as most animals here camouflage very well.

 This school of baby razor fish looks really like part of the sea grass until they start to move.

Saw this very beautiful hermit crab slowly moving from one place to another looking for food I presume.

A naticidae or commonly called Moon snails was seen ploughing at the sandy area. Moon snails may looks very pretty with the very shinning shell, they are fierce predator! They will drill a hole on mostly bivalves and use its proboscis to consume the flesh of their prey.

Another very pretty yet deadly  predators of the inter-tidal area - Helmut debelius (Cymbiola vespertilio)

Merely more than 2 cm wide, isn't this small crab cute?

First Echinoderms that I saw... half buried in the sand - a bristle star.

More bristle star of different colour.

Another sea star that camouflage very well with the substrate.

Nature never fail to amaze... talk about design principle such as unity/harmony, balance, hierarchy, similarity and contrast, etc. You name it, this star have it.

Pencil sea urchin hiding in the crevice in the day & will come out at night.

Another sea urchin in one of the tidal pool.

Sea cucumber, another member of the echinoderm.

Not forgetting this huge sea star - Knobbly sea star aka Chocolate chips sea star.

This may look like a flatworm at one glance but is not. This is a carpet sole fish! Can you spot the two eyes that is staring at you?

Also flat in shape is this nudibranch.

Fisherman also taking advantage of the low tide and fish at the inter-tidal area.

One of the many sea weed that can be found in the inter-tidal area. All these are indeed treasure to be discovered once every fortnight when the tide are low.  :)