The low spring tides have switched to evening at this time of the year. So instead of glorious sun rises, shore explorers can enjoy spectacular sun sets!As well as marvellous marine life of course. Here's some of the latest happenings over the last two weeks.
The Big Event of the month (and the year) was International Coastal Cleanup Singapore held on 20 Sep (Sat).
The months of preparation and planning paid off with smooth gathering of data and trash by thousands of volunteers on many of our shores. On the day itself, there was instant updates on the ICCS blog, with a particularly touching story of the effort on Chek Jawa.
Despite 200 volunteers removing 2.1 tonnes of trash from Chek Jawa, it is estimated that "only 5% of the total trash load at Chek Jawa" was removed. There is much MUCH more that needs to be done for our beloved Chek Jawa, as well as our other shores. More results and photos on the ICCS blog.There was also a quick check up of Sentosa's last accessible natural reef, much in danger from on-going and planned developments around it.
The shore was not at its best, but still revealed marvels such as this less frequently encountered cowrie. The delightful Four-spot cowrie (Cypraea quadrimaculata) is listed among the threatened animals of Singapore.Crinoid experts and a small team of volunteers visited the reefs at Pulau Hantu. Crinoids, or feather stars, are beautiful animals with long feathery arms. They are not very commonly seen on our intertidal so it was fortunate that several were seen during the trip.
Of course, along the way, many other marvellous reef creatures were encountered, including lots of flatworms, nudibranchs, hard corals and everyone's favourite: Clown anemonefishes.
Many outreach and other efforts continue during the last two weeks. Schering Plough volunteers were out once again to monitor the seagrass fields at Tuas.
Although the tide was brief and not very low, the team got the job done and had a quick look around. Tuas shores seem to be doing alright, with several clusters of the trademark seafans that are usually found there.
Meanwhile, Siti went all the way to Canada to share about Singapore seagrass meadows at an international seagrass conference.Other field trips include
- Changi field trip to explore the marine life there.
- Semakau intertidal walk introducing the rich biodiversity there.
- Pandan mangrove field trip for marine biology students.
- Big Sisters reef survey results on the Blue Water Volunteers blog
- New records of snails from East Coast Park! Snails that live on sea fans and other kinds of snails.
- Six new Nerite snail records for Singapore.
- Singapore and rising sea levels: parliamentary discussion and what will happen to Singapore with a 7m sea level rise? on the blooooooooo blog and wild shores of singapore blog.
- Is Singapore immune from tsunamis and earthquakes?
- Toxic marine paints and Singapore snails
- Landslide protection works on St. John's and Kusu Island
- One more oil rig to be parked for works off Pulau Semakau
- Update on massive dredging off Cyrene Reef and more reclamation nearby
- Sand mining off Changi
- Reclamation at Tuas
- Water quality at Pasir Ris full text of issue raised in parliament
- New Sentosa attractions in 2009 an announcement by Sentosa's new CEO
- 27 Sep (Sat): TeamSeagrass Orientation
- 28 Sep (Sun): Free Chek Jawa boardwalk tour with the Naked Hermit Crabs
- 28 Sep (Sun): Dive Pulau Hantu with the Hantu Bloggers
- 28 Sep (Sun): Painting with Pui San at Sungei Buloh
- 28 Sep (Sun): Birdwatching at Pulau Semakau with the Nature Society (Singapore)
- 1 Oct (Wed): Intertidal walk at Pulau Semakau with RMBR
- 4 Oct (Sat): "Secret Shores of Singapore" a talk at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve
- until 4 Oct: wild shores poster exhibition at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve
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