[Announcement] My blog's URL has changed

Dear readers,

Please take note that my blog's URL has been changed to www.peiyansesarma.blogspot.sg.
The old blog posts have already been imported over the "new" blog.
Do be patient as I fix up my sidebar.

Cheers!

PeiYan-sesarma

I'm a human climbing crab at Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal

When I mention "Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal", what will you relate it to? Ferries, Golf, Resorts, Bintan, overseas, travelling, holiday.

Do you know that as you walked along the jetty to your ferry, you had actually just walked over a reclaimed areas that has transformed into a beautiful coral garden? Corals, where are they? They are actually right at the base of the seawall.

Beautiful coral garden at Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal
[Photo by Loh Kok Sheng]

I covered a different stretch of the coral garden on this trip to the shore near Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal.

New signs of life on Changi Beach

Right after a three day Leafmonkey workshop "Walking with Nature at SOTA", some of us only had a few hours of sleep before we head out for another session with nature. The only difference is that we do not see people, but marine animals on our intertidal shores. The location: Changi Beach.
The stretch of shore we covered on this trip is full of new life. I came across so many juvenile animals such as this seagrass pipefish. You can tell how small it is by comparing the pipefish with the size of the spoon seagrass (Halophila ovalis).

Juvenile seagrass pipefish

I came across another juvenile seagrass pipefish later.

Ubin Tua Pek Kong Celebration - Day 1

Yesterday was the first day of a 6 days celebratory festival of Pulau Ubin Fo Shan Ting Da Bo Gong Temple (Tua Pek Kong). Everyone is welcome to this celebratory event and there is event free bumboat service provided in the evening for all 6 days.

Notification banner at Ubin jetty.

At Changi Point Ferry Terminal, the same banner is placed outside Ubin Seafood Restaurant, next to the ferry terminal. While at the drop-off point of the ferry terminal, the schedule of events and free bumboat services is displayed.

The beauty of Pulau Hantu

Many people will relate 'Hantu' as the Malay word for ghost and hence the island Pulau Hantu is literally referred to as "Ghost Island". The island is actually far from the spooky tales and myths of restless spirits or ghosts.

Pulau Hantu looks tiny compared to its refinery neighbour, Pulau Bukom.
Image from Google earth.

The whole of Pulau Hantu is formed by two separate "Hantu" islets - Hantu Besar (Big Ghost) and Hantu Kechil (Little Ghost).

Drone-ing Kusu Island

Located on one of Singapore's southern islands is this beautiful jetty and Chinese temple.

Panoramic view of the jetty

Chinese Temple

Where am I?

12 May - 17 May 2014: Pulau Ubin Celebrates the Tua Pek Kong's birthday

Have you ever wondered what this interesting structure (left, photo below) at Ubin town is used for?

A stage seen at Ubin town.
[Photo by WildSingapore]

From 12 May to 17 May 2014, this stage will be transformed into a wayang (chinese opera) performance stage, showing Teochew opera.

Quiet but great day guiding at Pulau Hantu

It was a quiet day on the intertidal shore at Pulau Hantu. Despite that we still managed to find interesting stuff for the youths of Jurong Spring Youth Club. I was helping The Hantu Bloggers as a guide.

Here's a group photo of the youth participants with the four guides. Joining us on the trip is Minister of State Desmond Lee.

Group photo
[Photo by MOS Desmond Lee on his Facebook]

Northern Beauty of Semakau

It was my first time checking the northern reef of Semakau. It was also the team's first time covering the whole reef of Semakau through a team effort.

Pink line marks the reef coverage the team covered on this trip.

Another team check the submerged reef next to Semakau's western reef, Terumbu Raya.

Oil spill reaches Pulau Semakau

On 29 January 2014, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) released a media statement about a collision between the departing Hong Kong-flagged chemical tanker, "Lime Galaxy" and the arriving China-flagged containership, "Feihe" in the evening at about 2.7 km, south of Jurong Island.

The media statement reported that "Feihe" sustained damages on her bunker tanks, resulting in some spillage of bunker fuel. Oil spill response companies were activated to support in the clean up efforts.

It is not revealed the exact location of the collision as Jurong Island is rather large but the image below shows the possible locations, mapped out by Ria Tan (wildsingapore).

Possible locations of the collision, mapped by Ria Tan.

The following day, 30 January 2014, MPA released another update about the collision: Collision between Lime Galaxy and Feihe - update 1

Kusu Reef: A reef with the lion city view under lots of stress

The reef at Kusu Island is rather unique. It is one reef that has a special view - The cityscape of Singapore. This view can be reach with a 15 mintues ferry ride from Marina South Pier.

Kusu reef with Singapore's cityscape in the distance.

Kusu Island is managed by Sentosa. All visitors are required to pay an entrance fee of SG$0.50 upon arrival at the island. On this island, there is a chinese temple and three Kramats. You can read more about Kusu Island here.

Kusu Island Oiled

On the eve of lunar new year, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) release a media statement regarding 'Contact between vessels NYK Themis and AZ Fuzhou' - MPA News centre, 30 January 2014.

A collision between the vessels happened at East Keppel Fairway at about 4 km south of Marina South. "NYK Themis" is a Panama-flagged containership while "AZ Fuzhou" is a barge being towed by "AZ Carnation". Here's a estimated location mapped out by Ria Tan (wildsingapore) to show collision spot.

Estimated collision site

The collision caused damages on the bunker tank of "NYK Themis", resulting in some spillage of bunker fuel. MPA's statement stated that "Oil spill response companies were also activiated to support the clean up efforts."

My love for TMSI-SJI

The Tropical Marine Science Institute, TMSI in short, is an institution formed with the National University of Singapore (NUS).  The institution aims to play a strong role in promoting integrated marine science, in research and development, as well as to establish itself as a regional and international education and training centre through active collaboration with academic, government and industrial sectors. Major research areas in TMSI are Marine Environmental Management; Underwater Remote Sensing and Oceanography.

TMSI homepage
www.tmsi.nus.edu.sg

There are two TMSI research facilities - one located on the main campus of NUS at Kent Ridge while second is located off mainland Singapore at St. John's Island (SJI). The institution also has research vessel, Galaxea, allowing researchers to conduct experiment in Singapore waters.

The Galaxea
[Image from TMSI's webpage, http://www.tmsi.nus.edu.sg/research-facilities-galaxea]

A new year, a new life on Chek Jawa

The new year marks the start of a slow progression towards intertidal fieldtrips as the low tide period starts to get lower and shifts from evening low tides to morning low tides. It is a great feeling to be back on the shore again, after about 1.5 months break due to the unfavourable low tides since mid November last year.

The first intertidal fieldtrip of 2014 begins at Chek Jawa. With heavy rain pouring almost daily throughout November to December and the eastern part of peninsular Malaysia being hit by floods, we were worried if Chek Jawa will be affected by large amount of freshwater flowing down the Johor river. Chek Jawa is located on the eastern end of Pulau Ubin where discharge from the nearby Johor River is directed at.

Location of Johor River mouth.

Tanjung Rimau Security Barriers - Some changes and slight improvements

The sky presented itself with a beautiful sunset as I did an update on the security barriers at Tanjung Rimau, Sentosa.

Sunset from Sentosa

How have the security barriers progressed after my last visit in August 2013? Were there improvements done or has situation worsened?

Cephaly, Fidderly and Tape Flowery at Semakau

It was a rather hot day today as we journey to Pulau Semakau for another intertidal survey session. The team had visited this part of the shore a few months ago on National Day.

We passed by quite close to the fish farm next to Semakau. There is a barge right next to the fish farm loaded with stacks of bags which may be fish food. On the barge (right side on the photo), there seems to be a large rectangular metal container used for incinerating things. I could see smoke coming out of the rectangular container and smelled something being burnt.

Anchored barge with stacks of white sacks.

Neatly constructed shelter

More than 160 kg of rubbish found on Pulau Ubin shores [English news report]

Following up on the Chinese news report about the coastal trash on the Nothern part of Pulau Ubin, Channel News Asia and Today newspaper reported about the same news in English. My friend has updated that on the same evening the Chinese news clip was broadcasted, the English news also reported about it with a separate video clip.

In case you have missed the videos or did not read my previous post, here are the videos

Channel 8 News (Chinese)

Channel NewsAsia (English)


Here is the news article accompanying the English video clip:

SINGAPORE: A recent clean-up of the beaches at Pulau Ubin led by Outward Bound Singapore saw more than 160 kilogrammes of waste being collected.

Volunteers found fishing nets and abandoned barrels among the usual plastic bags and bottles in the rubbish deposited at Pulau Ubin's northern shores.

Chua Li San, head of character and curriculum development at Outward Bound Singapore, said: "We don't know what is actually being contained in those barrels. Is it petroleum or is it some other petrochemical waste?

"The fishing nets... we don't know if any fishes or birds will be trapped by the nets.

"Is cleaning the beach the only solution? We need to do something more extensively... to educate people."

Fishermen said they usually bring their rubbish to the collection point at the nearby Marina Country Club and added that some of the waste could have floated over from kelongs at the opposite shores of neighbouring countries.

The Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority said it is an offence for fish farmers to dispose waste into sea waters.

- CNA/ec

Coastal Trash at Northern Ubin [Chinese News Report]

A few days ago, Ria wrote a blog post about fish farm trash found and removed from the northern shore of Pulau Ubin despite the coastline being lined with security fence. The cleanup activity was coordinated by Chua Li San from Outward Bound Singapore. Officers from the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) and the National Environment Agency (NEA) were invited to view the situation from the seaward side. You can read more about from Ria's blog post here.

Today, Mediacorp's Channel 8 evening and night newscast reported about this situation and interviewed a few fish farms nearby.

Here is the news clip from Channel 8 news' youtube channel.

For the benefit of my readers who do not understand Chinese, I have translated the content of the video. It is not 100% translated but I tried my best to translate as accurately as possible the main points covered in the news report. I also did the Chinese transcribe of the video.

Translation (Coastal trash at Northern Ubin)The northern shore of Pulau Ubin is often seen littered with large amount of trash. In the most recent cleanup event, volunteers removed 165 kg of trash within a day. News reporter found out that among the list of items removed are abandoned fishnets and chemical containing plastic drums. These items may pose threats to and damage the ecological environment.  

Narrator: 

Otter rolling around on the sand, heron resting on the fence. However, oil drums, styrofoam boxes and plastic bags are littering all around. Outward Bound Singapore (OBS), who regularly organises coastal cleanup for the public volunteers, commented that such sights are common.  

Interviewee (OBS): 

Just two weeks after the cleanup, we found a refrigerator here. Why are there still oil drums present? Why are there still items used by the fish farms found here?  

Narrator: 

In the nearby fish farms, a fish farmer commented that the fish farms dispose their trash in the marina country club nearby. As for the oil drums, it is possible that they were either not securely tied or dislodged by the strong waves.  

Interviewee (Fish farm): 

During presence of strong waves, the ropes securing the drums may break, resulting in the drums to be displaced and float out. The direction in which the drums float to depends on the direction of the wind.The wire fences on the security barriers are old and damaged with holes. At high tide, if the trash is floating near the holes on the fence, they will be washed through towards the shore.  

Narrator: 

The fish farmers also feedback that sometimes during strong northerly winds, trash from the kelong of neighbouring country also gets swept in the direction of Pulau Ubin. Volunteers have noticed fish trapped and killed by abandoned fishnets along the coastline. Disposed plastic drums are found to have contained chemicals.  

Reporter: 

Although OBS and public volunteers have access to this Northern shore on Pulau Ubin to conduct cleanup sessions, it was not enough to resolve the root cause of this problem – a measure to control those who discard trash illegally or those who are irresponsible in their trash management. It is unknown, at the moment, the kind of marine damage or pollution these trash can cause. Personnel from AVA and NEA visited this area last Saturday (5 October 2013) to conduct some checks. AVA emphasised that it is an offence for fish farmers to dispose their trash into the sea. Currently, no one has been fined for such offence.

I'll be glad to update this translation should you have better translated sentence(s).

Seems like the fish farmer made it sound so easy for the floating trash to just pass through the broken security fence during high tide. I am sure that some of the items removed from the shore could not float. So how did these items get onto the shore then?
I do have some doubts about the accuracy of information in this news report.

What about you? I welcome you to raise any questions you might have from this news report. Just drop me a comment with your name.

Marine animals crowd at Tanah Merah on a beautiful sunset

Tanah Merah has one of few quiet hidden shores tucked away from the hustle and bustle of urban pace.
It is surprising to see how well the Ribbon seagrass (Cymodocea rotundata) has settled very well on this shore and is expanding its coverage area.

Spread of Ribbon seagrass
[Photo by Ria Tan]

The Ribbon seagrass on this shore is so thick that they form a thick seagrass carpet when the tide goes down has the strap-like grass blades fall and intertwined with each other.

Owl, snakes and spiders at Pasir Ris Mangrove Boardwalk

It was a great trip with the Naked Hermit Crabs at Pasir Ris Mangrove Boardwalk. After a long break from Pasir Ris, the guided decided to conduct a free guided walk during this September school holidays. Despite a small group everyone saw amazing animals in this short 1 hour walk.

Located with a short walk for Pasir Ris Park Carpark C is a patch of replanted mangrove that has flourished along the banks of Sungei Tampines, and even on the coastline near the river mouth.

The visitors were looking forward to spotting animals as they entered the nearest entrance to the mangrove boardwalk. Little did they know that an golden orb spider is looming just above their parents' head.

Golden orb spider