Sampling in Balekambang

Few month ago i have asked by Siska to accompany her in Balekambang for sampling. We went there on saturday night by rental car along with our juniors. We also brought some sampling equipment such as chloroform, cooling box, and ziplock plastic. Chloroform used to preserve the sample, cooling box used to store the sample, and ziplock plastic used to separate one sample with another.

Balekambang is an area located 65 km from the central of Malang. The access to reach this area is not easy due to up-and-down road. It requires 3 to 4 hours to reach this area. Along the way we will pass jungle and the sugar cane plantations. Balekambang also has 2 km long of coastline and dominated eith white and light brown sand. Like the other beach on the south coastline of Java, its sea has big waves and swift currents. Hence it's not recommended or even forbidden for the visitor to swim there. In Balekambang, there are 3 small islands nearby: Ismoyo Island,  Anoman Island, and Wisanggeni Island. Above the Ismoyo Island, there is a Hindu shrine named Pura Luhur Amertha Jati that becomes the main attraction/selling point of this area. We could reach it by crossing a bridge from the main beach. The shrine is open for 24 hours and there is no entrance fee for it. Meanwhile the bridge to Pulau Anoman is already broken hence the visitor couldn't get into that island. 

We have several sample that will be used to practicum, research and conservation. The first sample is seaweed or Algae, the second is brittle star or Ophiuroidea, and the third we have sea slug or Mollusca and the last is sea buds or Blastoid. We found so many species during the sampling. However, we only brought several species for our project.