Semakau, TeamSeagrass final monitoring for 2007

Its a bright sunny day and the seagrassers gathered at Marina South Pier, all excited to embark on the last monitoring trip for this year. They all waited and waited for this one very very late seagrasser to arrive - ME!

And so we set out on what seemed to be an extremely long boat ride to Semakau and for some strange reason, everyone needed to relieve themselves when we set foot on the island (note: Ria says to do it at the pier next time to save time and trouble).

I was assigned to site 1 transect 1 which was the furthest away as a punishment for being late. So my partners and I walked all the way to the end of the shoreline just to find that we cannot locate our stake. So Weiling tried to help by using the GPS and talking to Siti through the walkie and finally we found it (all thanks to technology).

At the meantime, we spotted this really cool looking sea anemone

So we laid out the 50m transect line and started the monitoring as we had a lot to catch up on except for poor Andy who couldn't find the tape bag and had to wait for Ron to finish so that he could start.


Oh and did I mention that the Enhalus were blooming? There were lots of the styrofoam looking male flowers everywhere. What a good sight to behold on our last trip! Its too bad I was so engrossed with the monitoring that I forgot to take a picture of them so those who caught pictures please do post them here!

It was about half an hour more till we had to leave and everyone is done and exploring our rubbish dump island. It seemed that the starfish were also "blooming" with all the procreation going around. Here are some photos of the seagrassers in action:








I've also managed to get some close shots of the tiny crabs that scamper around our feet as I brought along my long lens. Love those long pointy eyes...



There was also some live firing going on at a nearby island and we were jolted to our feet when the huge KAPOW sent shockwaves (ok, that was a little to exaggerated). In no time, the seagrassers were all caught up with photographing the huge cloud of smoke.


But it wasn't long till the sun began to set and we had to move out before the tide comes in. We took some last photos and you can see Siti in the background waving to the others to pack up and scram.


It was a good last trip for TeamSeagrass and we sure had accomplished a lot this year. So on behalf of TeamSeagrass, a big THANKS to all volunteers, coordinators, boat captains who had helped us make this a huge success. Hope to see everyone again next year!

Thanks to all who came for the monitoring session: Andy, Alex, Sijie, Dawn, Dickson, Gaytri, Helen, Kah Chine, Michell, Nor Aishah, Ron, Ru Qi, Shuan Kwee, Suizlyn, Vyna, Saravanan, Chay Hoon, Sam, Jerald, Marcus, Sze Wee, Sereena and Tze Chien.

More Photos from the Clean and Green Jamboree

Hello! This post is a little belated, because I am incorrigible when it comes to posting in a timely fashion.

Anyway, I wanted to share some photos of our TeamSeagrass booth at the Clean and Green Jamboree and the special visitor who came around for a visit :)


This is Nor Aishah the project manager for the TeamSeagrass display at the Jamboree. She volunteered to (read: brow-beaten) think up a wonderful display to attact people to the booth. As project manager, she was also in charge of the snacks, and she's seen here stashing them in a safe place so the little kids don't mistake them for freebies.


Here is Kok Sheng, with one of the first visitors for the day, showing the wonderful treasures that seagrass habitats hold.


In no time at all, the booth was SWAMPED with visitors which Dickson and Aishah entertain while I walk around snapping photos :)


This is one of the awesome posters that Aishah and Sijie made for the booth.


And here is Gaytri sharing seagrass stories with someone's grandma.


And rubbing sholders with PM LEE(!!) who came by our booth and asked how Chek Jawa was doing after the flash floods earlier this year. Talk about being down with it eh?


And all too soon, it was time to pack up, with Sijie and Andy ending the shift. In all, it was a fruitful day of bringing seagrass to the heartlands!

We're trying to get more involed in exhibitions, so if any of you talented seagrassers out there wanna share your poster-making, games-creating, smooth-talking skills, do drop us a line to tell us you're keen.

See you guys at Semakau!

TeamSeagrass at the Clean and Green Jamboree

Clean and Green Jamboree is a celebration of all things green in Singapore. Previously just a week of events, this year, it has been extended to a full month! Media reports about this event on wildsingapore.

This year is also the first time, the green theme includes seagrasses!
TeamSeagrass led by the intrepid Miss Siti (right) set up a booth at the event to share with the public about seagrasses! Together with a game designed by Nor Aishah (left), Team members used photos and posters to share about the importance of seagrasses. And Gaytri's gorgeous one-of-a-kind banner takes pride of place at the booth.

Kok Sheng shares more photos and stories on his wonderful creations blog.

Sentosa (27 Oct 07) and Labrador (1 Nov 07)

The Labrador Angels were back on the shore for a successful monitoring. Read all about it on their labrador blog. This trip was to make up for their earlier trip, which was rather a bit less of a success because they forgot to bring the transect squares...oops.

TeamSeagrass also monitored Sentosa a few days earlier. But I wasn't there so no photos. Siti says all went well.