This weekend, Siti, Robin, Jeff, Adelle and other TeamSeagrass friends from NParks are giving exciting talks on "Reefs Rock!", "Marine Biodiversity and You", "Chek Jawa: Nature Beckons" and lots of other nature and environmental topics at the Clean and Green Singapore launch at the Marina Barrage.
The Young Seagrassers of Labrador will also have an exhibit of seagrasses.
Come and support them!
31 Oct-2 Nov: Nature talks at Clean and Green Singapore
Thanks to Lim Wei Ling, here's more details of nature, environmental and sporting talks at the upcoming Clean and Green Singapore launch this weekend.
31 Oct (Fri)
1800-1830hrs: "Frogs of Singapore" by Dr Leong Tzi Ming
1 Nov (Sat)
1030-1100hrs: "Cycling- The Greener Way To Go" by Joseph of Terra Outdoors
1100-1130hrs: "Organic Gardening in Urban Singapore" by Henry Yeo
1130-1200hrs: "Marine Biodiversity and You" by Siti Maryam
1230-1300hrs: "CIB- Plant Disease" by Matthew Tan
1400-1430hrs: "Let the dragons fly - showcasing dragonflies in Singapore" by Robin Ngiam
1500-1530hrs: "Reefs Rock!" by Jeffrey Low
1600-1630 hrs: "Chek Jawa: Nature Beckons" by Adelle Wang
1730-1800hrs: "Introduction to Inline Skating and Safety Etiquette" by Jason Ng of Skateline /Skate Assist Volunteer (SAV)
2 Nov (Sun)
1230-1300hrs: "Marine Biodiversity and You" by Siti Maryam
1300-1330hrs: "Going Green with Singapore's Native Plants" by Joyce Foo
1330-1400hrs: "Let the dragons fly - showcasing dragonflies in Singapore" by Robin Ngiam
1400-1430hrs: "Organic Gardening in Urban Singapore" by Henry Yeo
1430-1500hrs: "Carbon Footprint and You" by Hassan Ibrahim
1500-1530hrs: "Introduction to Inline Skating and Safety Etiquette" by Jason Ng of Skateline /Skate Assist Volunteer (SAV)
More details on the Clean and Green Singapore website.
Oct 30, 2008
2009 monitoring dates!
The tide tables are out and we've decided on our trips for next year. We've slotted the trips to Chek Jawa and Pulau Semakau on weekends, but Sentosa dates are on weekdays.
10 Jan (Sat): Chek Jawa (CJ-01)1400-1900hrs
12 Jan (Mon): Sentosa (SN-01) 1630-1930hrs
7 Feb (Sat): Pulau Semakau (PS-01) 1400-2000hrs
29 Mar (Sun): Chek Jawa (CJ-02) 0600-1000hrs
1 Apr (Wed): Sentosa (SN-02) 0700-1000hrs
1 May (Fri) (public holiday): Pulau Semakau (PS-02) 0700hrs-12noon
10 Jun (Wed): Sentosa (SN-03) 0600-0900hrs
27 Jun (Sat): Chek Jawa (CJ-03) 0700hrs-12noon
26 Jul (Sun): Pulau Semakau (PS-03) 0700hrs-12noon
21 Aug (Fri): Sentosa (SN-04) 0600-0800hrs
23 Aug (Sun): Chek Jawa (CJ-04) 0600-1000hrs
18 Oct (Sun): Pulau Semakau (PS-04) 1500-2000hrs
Timing is an estimate, to be confirmed closer to the date (depends on transportation time etc)
These dates have also been updated on the FAQs.
Those already on the team can sign up for these dates on the teamseagrass yahoo group.
Not yet a member? To join the team, simply send the following details
(a) your full name
(b) your age
(c) your email address
(d) your contact number
(e) any previous experience
to Ria at hello@wildsingapore.com, please put "TeamSeagrass" in your subject header.
See you at these monitoring trips!
10 Jan (Sat): Chek Jawa (CJ-01)1400-1900hrs
12 Jan (Mon): Sentosa (SN-01) 1630-1930hrs
7 Feb (Sat): Pulau Semakau (PS-01) 1400-2000hrs
29 Mar (Sun): Chek Jawa (CJ-02) 0600-1000hrs
1 Apr (Wed): Sentosa (SN-02) 0700-1000hrs
1 May (Fri) (public holiday): Pulau Semakau (PS-02) 0700hrs-12noon
10 Jun (Wed): Sentosa (SN-03) 0600-0900hrs
27 Jun (Sat): Chek Jawa (CJ-03) 0700hrs-12noon
26 Jul (Sun): Pulau Semakau (PS-03) 0700hrs-12noon
21 Aug (Fri): Sentosa (SN-04) 0600-0800hrs
23 Aug (Sun): Chek Jawa (CJ-04) 0600-1000hrs
18 Oct (Sun): Pulau Semakau (PS-04) 1500-2000hrs
Timing is an estimate, to be confirmed closer to the date (depends on transportation time etc)
These dates have also been updated on the FAQs.
Those already on the team can sign up for these dates on the teamseagrass yahoo group.
Not yet a member? To join the team, simply send the following details
(a) your full name
(b) your age
(c) your email address
(d) your contact number
(e) any previous experience
to Ria at hello@wildsingapore.com, please put "TeamSeagrass" in your subject header.
See you at these monitoring trips!
Oct 25, 2008
What's killing our turtles, dugongs?
The Daily Mercury, Mackay Queensland Australia, 25 Oct 08;
DENISE Abraham is furrowing her brow.
She is deeply concerned about the spate of sea animals that have washed up on Armstrong Beach this month.
Ms Abraham said in the past four weeks two turtles and two dugongs had been spotted dead just above the water line.
"I have in lived in Armstrong beach for the past 18 months and never come across anything like this before," she said.
"I want to know why this is occurring."
The Environmental Protection Agency downplayed the deaths attributing them to natural causes.
A spokesperson said all the animals appeared to have died of natural causes without any evidence of boat strike or other human interference.
"During the nesting season turtles use a lot of energy and are more vulnerable to disease, weakness, and predators," the spokesperson said.
"Any one of these factors combined with recent heavy weather conditions may have contributed to the recent strandings."
The spokesperson said it was possible that fresh water and sediment from flooding earlier in the year may have affected seagrass growth in the area.
"As seagrass is the main food source for both turtles and dugongs this may have been a contributing factor to one or more of the recent strandings."
The spokesperson said the strandings in the Mackay area this month were consistent with stranding numbers that might be expected at this time of year and those from previous years.
"Turtles are more frequently found on beaches at this time of year, and will generally be either nesting or basking," the spokesperson said.
"Turtles bask on shore for reasons such as resting, escaping predators and to regulate their body temperature."
Oct 21, 2008
Labrador angels at work (16 Oct 08)
The young seagrassers have done another monitoring session at Labrador and in their post explain the difference between silt, fine sand and shell. Read more about it on their labrador blog.
They are also preparing a booth at Clean and Green Singapore 2008 (CGS 2008) at the Marina Barrage from the 31st Oct (Friday) to 2nd Nov (Sunday)! Do come and support them!
They are also preparing a booth at Clean and Green Singapore 2008 (CGS 2008) at the Marina Barrage from the 31st Oct (Friday) to 2nd Nov (Sunday)! Do come and support them!
Oct 19, 2008
Chek Jawa (18 Oct 08)
The Team is out in full force today with nearly 30 people to monitor the beautiful marine meadows of Chek Jawa.
Besides the usual team, we also had Dr Dan Rittschof of Duke University with us to consolidate the findings of work done by Kok Sheng on the mass death on Chek Jawa in early 2007. Siva and Airani also came to help Dr Dan do the survey. The film crew were also with us again.
There were plenty of hands to help out today.
After a quick briefing, we all headed off to do the check up on Chek Jawa.
Half of the team headed out under a blue blue sky to the far far Northern sandbar.
It's quite a long walk!
The other half did the site closer to the shore.
All too soon, the job was done, and Siti takes a group photo of some of the Team, with the Chek Jawa boardwalk and viewing tower in the background.
Chek Jawa's seagrasses seem to be doing well.
Here's a typical view of a patch of Spoon seagrasses (Halophila ovalis) and Fern seagrasses (Halophila spinulosa).
Fern seagrasses are made up of tiny little leaflets.
Because Chek Jawa is so lush, it's important to look carefully. Not all leafy things are seagrasses.
The long feathery green things on the right are a green seaweed (Caulerpa taxifolia).
While these fine feathery green things are another kind of green seaweed (Caulerpa sertularioides).
Thin and narrow Needle seagrasses (Halodule sp.) are also commonly seen on Chek Jawa.
Again, a closer look is important, because the feathery stuff is a green seaweed (Caulerpa mexicana).
The Ribbon seagrass (Cymodocea rotundata) is only commonly seen on Chek Jawa. It has a smooth rounded tip without serrations. Here you can see the difference between seagrasses with and without epiphytes (stuff growing on the leaf). The patch of Ribbon seagrass at Chek Jawa has expanded tremendously!
Another special seagrass seen on Chek Jawa is Beccarii's seagrass (Halophila beccarii). This tiny seagrass has long small leaves emerging in a rosette. So far, we have only found it on Chek Jawa and Sungei Buloh. One other seagrass found on Chek Jawa is the Sickle seagrass (Thalassia hemprichii), but I didn't go to the area where it's found and thus missed taking a photo of it.
Seagrasses and the seaweeds that are entangled among them, provide hiding places for all kinds of tiny animals. Many are well camouflaged, like this spider crab (left) and elbow crab (right).
The roots of seagrasses stabilise the sediments allowing small burrowing animals to settle down. Like this tiny sea pen.
Seagrasses are an important nursery for all kinds of animals. Eggs are often laid on and among seagrasses, like this white ribbon of eggs.
Here's a closer look at the egg mass with the tiny eggs embedded in the ribbon.
The most exciting find of the day were several small baby Knobbly sea stars (Protoreaster nodosus) in the seagrass meadows! This is the first time for me to see babies on Chek Jawa! We were fortunate today to hae the Star Trackers with us and I'm sure they will post more about these finds.
There were lots of other sightings too! Here's some sightings on the wild shores of singapore blog and the Chek Jawa project blog by Kok Sheng.
We stayed on till a little after sunset and everyone made it back safely. Thanks to Lilyana for taking care of the head counting and looking after this huge group all the way there and back. Thanks everyone, for another succesful monitoring trip: Lilyana, Dawn, Kenerf, Vyna, Mizuki, Jocelyne Sze, Chay Hoon, Dewei, June, Anuj, ShinYee, ShinYin, Hannah, Suryati, Steve, Andy, Kah Ming, Edwin, Suizlyn, Michell, Nor Aishah, Robin, Chun Fong. And it was a treat to have Dr. Dan, Airani, Siva, Kok Sheng, Chee Kong and Sijie join us too.
Besides the usual team, we also had Dr Dan Rittschof of Duke University with us to consolidate the findings of work done by Kok Sheng on the mass death on Chek Jawa in early 2007. Siva and Airani also came to help Dr Dan do the survey. The film crew were also with us again.There were plenty of hands to help out today.
After a quick briefing, we all headed off to do the check up on Chek Jawa.
Half of the team headed out under a blue blue sky to the far far Northern sandbar.
It's quite a long walk!
The other half did the site closer to the shore.
All too soon, the job was done, and Siti takes a group photo of some of the Team, with the Chek Jawa boardwalk and viewing tower in the background.Chek Jawa's seagrasses seem to be doing well.
Here's a typical view of a patch of Spoon seagrasses (Halophila ovalis) and Fern seagrasses (Halophila spinulosa).
Fern seagrasses are made up of tiny little leaflets.Because Chek Jawa is so lush, it's important to look carefully. Not all leafy things are seagrasses.
The long feathery green things on the right are a green seaweed (Caulerpa taxifolia).
While these fine feathery green things are another kind of green seaweed (Caulerpa sertularioides).
Thin and narrow Needle seagrasses (Halodule sp.) are also commonly seen on Chek Jawa.
Again, a closer look is important, because the feathery stuff is a green seaweed (Caulerpa mexicana).
The Ribbon seagrass (Cymodocea rotundata) is only commonly seen on Chek Jawa. It has a smooth rounded tip without serrations. Here you can see the difference between seagrasses with and without epiphytes (stuff growing on the leaf). The patch of Ribbon seagrass at Chek Jawa has expanded tremendously!
Another special seagrass seen on Chek Jawa is Beccarii's seagrass (Halophila beccarii). This tiny seagrass has long small leaves emerging in a rosette. So far, we have only found it on Chek Jawa and Sungei Buloh. One other seagrass found on Chek Jawa is the Sickle seagrass (Thalassia hemprichii), but I didn't go to the area where it's found and thus missed taking a photo of it.
Seagrasses and the seaweeds that are entangled among them, provide hiding places for all kinds of tiny animals. Many are well camouflaged, like this spider crab (left) and elbow crab (right).
The roots of seagrasses stabilise the sediments allowing small burrowing animals to settle down. Like this tiny sea pen.
Seagrasses are an important nursery for all kinds of animals. Eggs are often laid on and among seagrasses, like this white ribbon of eggs.
Here's a closer look at the egg mass with the tiny eggs embedded in the ribbon.
The most exciting find of the day were several small baby Knobbly sea stars (Protoreaster nodosus) in the seagrass meadows! This is the first time for me to see babies on Chek Jawa! We were fortunate today to hae the Star Trackers with us and I'm sure they will post more about these finds.There were lots of other sightings too! Here's some sightings on the wild shores of singapore blog and the Chek Jawa project blog by Kok Sheng.
We stayed on till a little after sunset and everyone made it back safely. Thanks to Lilyana for taking care of the head counting and looking after this huge group all the way there and back. Thanks everyone, for another succesful monitoring trip: Lilyana, Dawn, Kenerf, Vyna, Mizuki, Jocelyne Sze, Chay Hoon, Dewei, June, Anuj, ShinYee, ShinYin, Hannah, Suryati, Steve, Andy, Kah Ming, Edwin, Suizlyn, Michell, Nor Aishah, Robin, Chun Fong. And it was a treat to have Dr. Dan, Airani, Siva, Kok Sheng, Chee Kong and Sijie join us too.
Oct 18, 2008
Sentosa (17 Oct 08)
It's that time of the year for evening tides and under a gloomy sky, the Team assembles to monitor Sentosa.
We are being filmed! Siti and Wei Ling had been hard at work even before we arrived. Here they are giving the briefing before we begin. And then we were off.
Andy shares monitoring methods with first-timers Ian and Ms Hirano of NEC. While the others are spread out on this rubbly reef to check out the seagrasses.
Although this stretch of natural shore at Sentosa faces our busy world-class container ports, it still has lush growths of Tape seagrass (Enhalus acoroides) and Spoon seagrass (Halophila ovalis).
Both kinds of seagrasses are doing very well! There are large, healthy patches of them all over the shore.
Today, there was a huge bloom of Hairy seaweeds (Bryopsis sp.) which washed up in large quantities on the shore.
The seaweeds also bunged up the transect square so they had to be removed every time before taking the next reading. More about Bryopsis and seaweed blooms on the wild shores of singapore blog.
Even as the sun sets over the industrial installations at Jurong Island, the Team continues their work.
The Sentosa shore is too narrow for the usual kind of set up with the transect tapes. So we do a random sampling here.
When we were done, we took a quick look around the shore and saw the usual hard and soft corals, as well as some red egg crabs and an octopus! There was also a Giant carpet anemone with an anemone shrimp!
The weather held and it didn't rain like yesterday. So we had a nice cool evening trip.
Thank you to all who came to help: Andy, Marcus, Ivan, Jiunn Hui, Charmaine and our special guests Ian and Ms Hirano.
We are being filmed! Siti and Wei Ling had been hard at work even before we arrived. Here they are giving the briefing before we begin. And then we were off.
Andy shares monitoring methods with first-timers Ian and Ms Hirano of NEC. While the others are spread out on this rubbly reef to check out the seagrasses.
Although this stretch of natural shore at Sentosa faces our busy world-class container ports, it still has lush growths of Tape seagrass (Enhalus acoroides) and Spoon seagrass (Halophila ovalis).
Both kinds of seagrasses are doing very well! There are large, healthy patches of them all over the shore.
Today, there was a huge bloom of Hairy seaweeds (Bryopsis sp.) which washed up in large quantities on the shore.
The seaweeds also bunged up the transect square so they had to be removed every time before taking the next reading. More about Bryopsis and seaweed blooms on the wild shores of singapore blog.
Even as the sun sets over the industrial installations at Jurong Island, the Team continues their work.
The Sentosa shore is too narrow for the usual kind of set up with the transect tapes. So we do a random sampling here.When we were done, we took a quick look around the shore and saw the usual hard and soft corals, as well as some red egg crabs and an octopus! There was also a Giant carpet anemone with an anemone shrimp!
The weather held and it didn't rain like yesterday. So we had a nice cool evening trip.
Thank you to all who came to help: Andy, Marcus, Ivan, Jiunn Hui, Charmaine and our special guests Ian and Ms Hirano.
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