3 Jun (Sat): TeamSeaGrass at Balik Chek Jawa

FREE, no registration required, just come to Chek Jawa! As part of Pesta Ubin, TeamSeaGrass volunteers will be at this Chek Jawa Open House.

Fun for the family: Seagrasses and more!

Volunteer guides will be stationed all over the boardwalk to share about Chek Jawa's amazing wildlife. Fun for the whole family, there will be free colouring sheets and kids activities too!

2015 TeamSeaGrass Monitoring Trips Are Up

Hi TeamSeaGrass,

A great 2015 to all. Hope everyone had a great year end break.

The 2015 monitoring dates have been finalised. As usual, they will  also be posted on the blog if you need to refer back.  A really good news is that we can finally return to Pulau Semakau (YAY!!), so we are back to our normal programme once again. Will need to point out that due to really lousy weekend tides this year, there will be 2 weekdays trips. These are CR01 and CJ03. Really sorry about this. Would really appreciate anyone’s effort to come join us for these weekdays trips. Other than that, the trips are actually pretty well spread out this year, with an average of 1 trip per month.

Here's how this year's monitoring dates look like

21 Mar (Sat): Chek Jawa (CJ01) 4pm - 8pm

22 Apr (Wed): Cyrene Reef (CR01) 6am - 10am* (Weekday trip)

9 May (Sat): Pulau Semakau (PS01) 6am - 11am


6 Jun (Sat): Chek Jawa (CJ02) 6am - 11am

5 Jul (Sun): Cyrene Reef (CR02) 6am to 11am*

2 Aug (Sun): Pulau Semakau (PS02) 6am to 10am


28 Oct (Wed): Chek Jawa (CJ03) 3pm to 7pm (Weekday trip)

28 Nov (Sat): Cyrene Reef (CR03) 4pm to 8pm*

12 Dec (Sat): Pulau Semakau (PS03) 4pm to 8pm

The first 3 trips of the year are up for sign ups. I will upload and announce the other sign up dates closer to the trips. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ teamseagrass/database Looking forward to seeing you guys soon.

Chek Jawa (18 May 2014)

It was another lovely day out at Chek Jawa with a team comprising many newbies and some oldies (but goodies).

We assemble at the Changi Point Jetty in the wee hours of the morning to catch the bumboat to Pulau Ubin.

One bumboat and van ride later...

Everyone's awake! Shocker.

The van taking us into the unknown...

Chek Jawa (1 March 2014)

Second monitoring trip for 2014 and TeamSeagrass heads to Chek Jawa. It's looking to be another HOT day as the Team boarded the boat to Pulau Ubin.

We had a large group of newbies and some old-bees who had forgotten how to monitor; so we decided today will be a teaching session, where we take it slow and emphasize the finer points of monitoring. After we sorted the old-bees, newbies and stalwarts into groups (this always takes waaay too much time, maybe we need a TeamSeagrass sorting hat?), I did the briefing and we headed out to shore to do the seagrass ID session.

Siti giving the briefing.

Of mud and seed banks: Adventures with Seagrass-Watch, 2nd - 3rd Feb 2014.

So this is a totally belated post btw, I was supposed to do it, but all the thesis writing made it very difficult to face a computer and type stuff, so I put it off for as long as I could until it just got ridiculous, so here goes.

Len and Rudi from Seagass-Watch HQ visited us over the CNY weekend and OF COURSE we had to go seagrass adventuring. The aim of the trip was to collect some samples for nutrient analyses, genetic studies and to do a preliminary seed bank study.

Fortunately, the tides are evening tides, which means that we could sleep in after the CNY feasting and festivities before heading out to Chek Jawa on Sunday, 2nd Feb. Once we were there, Sam, Nor Aishah and I set out collecting samples for genetic analyses. There were some curious members of the public out and about and we had to tell them what we were doing. Good thing we have that research permit!

After that, Rudi showed us how to do seed bank sampling. It's a relatively simple method, using very simple tools, namely a PVC pipe and a kitchen sieve. The idea is to get about 10cm of sediment in the corer and sieve out the sediments and look for seeds. Here's Sam showing us how it's done:

Using the Corer (PVC pipe with cap) to sample ~10cm o sediment.

Chek Jawa (21 September 2013)

TeamSeagrass was out and about at Chek Jawa for the first of our evening tides this year! It's been awhile since I blogged for any of our trips, so bear with me if this isn't the usual style of reporting.

The afternoon started off well enough, we got everyone to CJ in time for the outgoing low tide. We distributed the equipment and people into various groups and then realised that I had forgotten the pencils. Spectacular start to the day indeed. Fortunately for me, seagrassers are prepared a resourceful people, so out came the pens and pencils out of nooks and crevices hitherto long-forgotten. 

Chek Jawa field training (15 Jun 2013)

It was a hot hot hazy day as the teams head out on the seagrass meadows of Chek Jawa.

A large contingent of TeamSeagrass are here not only for monitoring, but also field training with Seagrass-Watch.

Chek Jawa (27 Jan 2013)

TeamSeagrass is back on shore for our first monitoring session of 2013!

We enjoyed great weather, saw wild boar, dugong feeding trails and had a chance to check up on the health of Chek Jawa. We also removed an abandoned driftnet.

Chek Jawa (28 Oct 12)

The Team is back on Chek Jawa to monitor the amazing seagrass meadows there!

They enjoyed a glorious evening at this special shore!

Chek Jawa (13 May 2012)

Despite the wet start, a large team of enthusiastic volunteers gather to monitor seagrasses at Chek Jawa!

Today is a special trip because Len and Rudi of international SeagrassWatch are with us! We also saw more signs of dugongs!

Chek Jawa (8 Jan 2012)

It's our first monitoring trip for 2012! And what a wet start we had!

Despite the rainy weather, this team of enthusiastic volunteers soldiered on and got it done!

Chek Jawa (26 Oct 2011)

Uh oh! Big black clouds are gathering over Pulau Ubin and Chek Jawa!

That didn't stop a small team of enthusiastic volunteers from heading out to monitor seagrasses!

Chek Jawa (3 July 2011) with otters!

A small intrepid team headed out for Chek Jawa to monitor the seagrasses there just after sunrise.

We had glimpses of otters! And saw signs of what might be dugong feeding trails! The Chek Jawa seagrass meadows are awesome!

Chek Jawa (24 Apr 2011)

A small team heads out to monitor the seagrasses of Chek Jawa this bright sunny morning.

The shores of Chek Jawa are covered in a green welcome carpet of fresh new Sea lettuce seaweed!

Logger retrieval at Chek Jawa (20 Jan)

Today, a small team joins Siti to retrieve the cool instruments she set up a few weeks earlier at Chek Jawa.

These instruments take readings of important environmental factors that might affect health of the seagrasses and marine life there. They have to be regularly checked.

New Additions to Seagrass-Monitoring for 2011

This year marks the FOURTH year of seagrass monitoring in Singapore. Who'd have thought we'd come this far when we first started out at Chek Jawa in 2007? And it's all thanks to YOU, our dedicated volunteers!

To kick off our fourth year of monitoring, we will now be measuring light and temperature data in addition to our regular monitoring protocol. Light and temperature are very important factors controlling seagrass growth and health and the information collected will enhance our regular monitoring data.

Chek Jawa (2 Jan 11)

Happy New Year from TeamSeagrass as we do our first monitoring for 2011!

The Team enjoyed a breezy sunny day as we monitored at Chek Jawa, as well as some NEW stuff ...

Chek Jawa (9 Oct 10)

Yesterday, a small team headed out to Chek Jawa for our regular seagrass monitoring.
I helped out at Site 2, and did transect 1 which is fast being taken over by the encroaching sand bar!

Chek Jawa seagrasses after the oil spill (19 Jun 10)

Today, the Team heads off to monitor Chek Jawa after the oil spill that hit this shore about three weeks ago. How are our seagrasses doing? While earlier reports by shore lovers and in the media suggest no major immediate impacts, effects of an oil spill can develop over the long term.
As the more experienced Team members do a quick survey of the rest of Chek Jawa, this means some of our newer Team members have to lead the monitoring.

TeamSeagrass Outdoor Orientation at Chek Jawa (28 Mar 10)

After our Indoor Orientation session, it was time to head outdoors and try out monitoring in the field!
Here's the very enthusiastic Team on a very hot day out at Chek Jawa!