TeamSeagrass colouring sheet for Pesta Ubin!

Specially for Pesta Ubin 2016, TeamSeagrass is offering this colouring sheet. Have fun and learn more about seagrasses and how you CAN make a difference for Singapore's seagrass meadows.

To get your copies of this colouring sheet, come visit TeamSeaGrass on 4 Jun (Sat) 2016 at the Assembly Area at Ubin Town, or on 5 Jun (Sun) 2016 at Chek Jawa.

Mark Your Calendar for Ubin Day and Festival of Biodiversity

The month of June is an exciting time for TeamSeaGrass as we look forward to be part of two major events that celebrates some of our most favourite things in the world: Pulau Ubin and biodiversity conservation. That’s right folks. TeamSeaGrass will be taking part in Ubin Day on 13 June and Festival of Biodiversity on 27 and 28 June. More information about these two events, including volunteering opportunities can be found below.

 Ubin Day 13 and 14 June 2015

Ubin Day is a time where we all celebrate every bit of Ubin: its culture, kampung life, nature and wildlife, Ubin land and sea. Through these events, we hope to also raise awareness of Pulau Ubin and issues facing Pulau Ubin.

Ubin Day will be happening this weekend (13 and 14 June 2015). TeamSeaGrass will be setting up a booth on 13 June. More information about our booth can be found here. We will be there from 7am to 6pm at the Assembly Area opposite the HSBC Volunteer Hub and if you would like to join us to help out at our booth, please email us at teamseagrass@gmail.com and indicate the duration you would be helping out. We will get back to you with more details.

Otherwise, come visit us and say hi or join in the many activities offered by other groups and get to explore different sides of Ubin.  

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Festival of Biodiversity 27 and 28 June 2015

The Festival of Biodiversity is back for the 4^th year will be held over the weekend of 27 and 28 June at VivoCity.

The Festival is organised by NParks in collaboration with the Biodiversity Roundtable, a group of about 20 key representatives from various sectors of the biodiversity community which TeamSeaGrass is part of.

This year, learn more about local biodiversity through a display featuring 50 species of interesting flora and fauna closely linked to Singapore, a marine exhibition that brings the ocean to you, nature-themed craft workshops and booths showcasing the causes, research and activities of environmental groups!

The Festival is also adding a new element that will add variety and a new level of interactivity with the public: the Festival of Biodiversity Concert at the Amphitheatre (Level 3). The free concert will be played on both evenings. More information about the local musicians who will be performing at the concert can be found here.

For those of you who would like to be involved in the Festival, NParks is calling for volunteers to help them out in various activities such as running the booths, exhibition and children's art and craft workshops! Some of the TeamSeaGrass members have already signed up to help out. If you would also like to volunteer your time to help out at the event, please sign up at http://tinyurl.com/FOB2015Volunteer by 19 June 2015. You can indicate your preferred date, time slots and activities/roles in the form, and more details will be sent to you after you sign up.

See you at the events!

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.

Festival of Biodiversity, 12 and 13 July 2014

If you're looking for something different to do on a weekend, why not visit the Festival of Biodiversity?

TeamSeaGrass will be participating together with other local blue groups. We'll be at the marine section so do pop by to say hi!

We're also looking for volunteers from among TeamSeaGrass members to engage with the public at the marine section. This section will showcase Singapore's marine biodiversity as well as highlight local marine research and the initiatives of local blue groups. Please sign up here or email Nor Aishah for more information.

See you at the Festival!

Cyrene Reef (15 June 2014)

Greetings readers! TeamSeagrass is back with another successfully completed monitoring survey on Cyrene Reefs! We had a short scare when it started to drizzle on our way to the marina, but thankfully stopped after 20 minutes. We had 9 volunteers (including myself!) for this trip. Monitoring trips to Cyrene require our volunteers to have at least participated in 1 Chek Jawa monitoring and 3 P. Semakau monitoring due to the complexity of the meadows. Therefore, we had a couple of newly-minted volunteers on this trip - Cheryl, Bryan and Pearlynn! Good to see volunteers slowly upgrading their experience with us! :)

The day started out with thick and fluffy clouds and a beautiful sunrise before it was covered by the clouds again... Interestingly, this wasn't how it first looked like when we had arrived...

Sunrise at Cyrene.

We departed really early yesterday morning (5.30am!?) as Alex needed to be back at the marina for a second batch of customers. This meant that we did our very first amphibious landing IN THE DARK! I have to say I was quite worried (although the volunteers were eager to get onto the reefs), but all things turned out well. With my handy torch, I guided them to the sand bar where we gathered and arranged our usual equipment.

Volunteers and coordinators chatting (top). Photo from Johnson Ong; amphibious landing in total darkness! (bottom). Photo from Pearlynn Sim.

Yep... This is how it looked like when we first landed. Fortunately everyone was ever-ready to head out for monitoring! Being kiasu, I suggested to Rachel and Samantha that we should take the volunteers to their Site 2. :P

Johnson shining the light for Boon Seng... Photo from Johnson Ong.

Finally first light at 6.50am! Time to start monitoring!

Sam and I talking about seagrass (I think..?). Photo from Rachel Lim.

We were blessed with a cool and breezy weather with almost no sun! It makes monitoring alot easier, minus the glare and sweat.

Sam at Site 1, T3 (top); Cheryl at Site 2 (bottom). Photo from Johnson Ong.

This trip is much shorter than our usual trips but that didn't stop us from having a look around!

Left: Ribbon worm; Right top: Common seastar (Photo from Johnson Ong); Right bottom: Cake seastar?

We noticed an interesting phenomenon - mass mortality of this shrimp (below)! We tried to save some of them by putting them back into the water but usually they are already dead. Some volunteers were wondering if it could be due to drying out on the sand bar - possible but I was doubtful as these animals tend to survive well under tidal conditions. So what happened here?

Penaeid shrimps? Mass mortality?

Another phenomenon that has been reported since the start of June is bleaching of corals and other zooxanthellate animals... So far, bleaching has been minimal with most corals having a small patch of bleached out. We are expecting higher water temperatures in July and that could have severe repercussions to our coral reefs. :( I think I also found a patch of zoanthids looking pale... Oh no!

Bleaching of soft corals (left) and hard corals (right). Photos from Rachel Lim.

More bleaching records... Zoanthids bleaching? (right bottom)

Before the tides turn, we had our (formal) group photo! Everyone was very sporty! haha...

Our iconic orange life jackets! :)

Volunteers disembarking for the boat. Having selfie time!

A great day out! A BIG thank you to our dedicated volunteers: Johnson, Boon Seng, Bryan, Pearlynn, Cheryl, and Juin Bin, and thank you Rachel and Samantha for making arrangements for the fieldtrip and looking out for everyone! :)

A picture with our iconic Knobbly seastars! :D

We still have another two more monitoring trips for 2014! Do sign up with us at our database!

TeamSeagrass is also now on Twitter and Instagram. Check us out @TeamSeagrass!

ALSO, TeamSeagrass will have a panel at this year's Festival of Biodiversity! Do drop by and say hi! We have something special installed for our volunteers so stay tune to our blog!

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...