The Ulva on Pulau Sekudu gathered in untamed clumps that lay shin deep over the shore. It's a pity that many, including those who stand to gain from the end of the food chain that begins in these green thalli, regard these blooms as unsightly stains on the beach or impediments to long lines and barbed hooks. Yet, the algae is no more than a product of warmer months and clearer waters that can no longer bear a surplus of sealocked nutrients. The run-off of nitrogen and phosphorus that leaks from land to shore is captured and safely stored in thin layers of cells that are grazed upon by rasping tongues and roving turtles.
In the spring tide hours, the seaweed becomes a landscape of hills and ribbons that betray the presence of countless animals that crawl beneath the shredded canopy. Sea stars by the dozens spill out from these mounds, arms held askance and tube feet raging in blind synchrony. The long-spined sand stars are the hastiest, skimming over the silt with discomforting speed. Some beam with solar brilliance and the steel blue glint of cold-hearted hunters. Others are worn and tattered, their plates shattered and limbs affray after a wrestle too many over mates and morsels. But still they roll on, caring less about their garb or chance meetings with fellow confections than a final bite of the cherry before they burn out and fall apart to scatter the sea with the dust of a dying star.
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