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This one was seen on Cyrene Reef during a particularly gray morning. The sky was forgiving on the reef with just a few drops hinting of the thunderstorm that besieged the rest of Singapore that morning. The clip starts with one of the Star Trackers (TSJ) unknowingly approaching the reticulated slug which was, for all intents and purposes, in another dimension....under water. In their element, slugs are not 'sluggish' but graceful animals. Little is known of these slugs. Can they be useful to science? Amazing Cyrene!
Pulau Hantu is one of Singapore's most renowned Southern Islands. Despite its prominence, it is constantly left to cope with a relentlessly changing coastline and marine environment. For a long time, the threats to Pulau Hantu have avoided the scrutiny of the public and the brilliance of its marine habitat gone unheralded. Debby Ng will bring clarity to the usually murky waters of Pulau Hantu with her underwater photos and videos. About the speaker:Debby Ng is a full-time environmental journalist. She began her work in film and moved on to television, but eventually realised that she gained the most satisfaction from communicating her concerns on the environment through her photography and writing. Her work has been published in several regional and international magazines, including the award-winning Lebanese magazine, Environment & Development. She has also worked with numerous Asian and international non-government organisations such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). In 2005 she assisted the Indonesian government in their assessment of fisheries, a project funded by The World Conservation Union (IUCN), the only conservation organisation with official observer status at the United Nations. Debby Ng is founder of the Hantu Blog, an education and awareness project powered entirely by volunteers and utilising free electronic media. She is also a volunteer dive guide and a freelance nature guide with Creative Kids.
For more about Pulau Hantu and the volunteers that dive there, visit the Hantu Blog.
A special talk held at the Reef Celebrations by Jeffrey Low NParks National Biodiversity Centre
Singapore is well known as a "Garden City", and many people do not know the natural wonders that exist just off shore. As much of the country has been reclaimed, many of the marine environments have been impacted. However, marine life still has a tenuous hold in many of the islands off the coast of mainland Singapore.
A small, but growing, number of conservationists have endeavoured over the past 20 years to promote the conservation of our least known natural heritage. The speaker will give a brief insight into the history of the marine conservation movement in Singapore, focusing mainly on the southern islands and coral reefs. Individual efforts and group activities will also be discussed to highlight the actions Singaporeans can take to help conserve the wonderful underwater world.
About the speaker:Jeffrey graduated from NUS in with a Bachelors of Science degree in 1988, and obtaining his Masters degree in 1999. He has worked on many coral reef and marine-related projects as a Research Assistant with NUS, first at the Reef Ecology Laboratory and then at the Tropical Marine Science Institute. He joined NParks in 2003 as a Senior Biodiversity Officer, overseeing development and marine conservation issues in the southern islands of Singapore.
An experienced scuba diver with over 2000 dives, he has dived not only in many parts of Asia, but also on many of the reefs in Singapore. He is an active guide and trainer with the Blue Water Volunteers, a local marine conservation NGO, in their Reef Walk, Reef Friends and Reef Xplore! programmes.
He has also co-authored a Singapore Science Centre guidebook Common Marine Fishes of Singapore, was a research writer for the ASEANAREAN Expedition series The Marine Parks of Thailand (1997), as well as the for the Marine Parks of Indonesia (1999), in which he was also the principal underwater photographer.
The Knobbly seastar (Protoreaster nodosus) is perhaps one of the most charismatic features of our shores. However, sightings of this endangered species were rare and hence our understandings of local populations were poor. Recently, there was a widespread emergence of recruits at various shores and a discovery of a large population at Cyrene Reef. These findings rekindled our hopes in the future of this species in our waters. The Star Trackers grabbed this opportunity to collect scientific data, in the hope that they will be useful for the better management of the remaining populations in Singapore. About the speakers: In 2008, Chim Chee Kong and Tan Sijie founded The Star Trackers, which has a blog to share knowledge and create public awareness regarding the knobbly seastar populations in Singapore.
Chee Kong is currently a Research Assistant with the Tropical Marine Science Institute, and has worked with various types of marine animals such as snails, seastars and snakes. He is obsessed with local nature and loves to share this passion with other people.
Sijie is the Education and Public Relations Officer for Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, NUS. His past research areas include water snakes and environmental conditions of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. With an immense interest in nature and research, he is often involved in public outreach and education.
Lauded for its high biodiversity with six distinct ecosystems, Chek Jawa received a ten year deferment from land reclamation in 2001 and has subsequently become a popular attraction among Singaporeans. However, a mass death of several marine animals occurred in January 2007. A study was later done to understand what contributed to the mass mortality event and evaluate the recovery of marine animals. It is true that a better understanding is essential to protect this fascinating shore. In this talk, Kok Sheng will share with the audience how is Chek Jawa faring and also his experiences and discoveries from the study.
About the speaker:Kok Sheng is currently an undergraduate in NUS, majoring in Life Sciences with specialization in Biology. In July 2007, he received the MOE Teaching Award. Kok Sheng has great interests in ecological work and did an UROPS (Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme in Science) project under the supervision of N. Sivasothi, Peter Todd and Dan Rittschof. His project aimed to study the mass mortality and recruitment of macrofauna at Chek Jawa in Pulau Ubin. Since the project has application value in understanding and conserving the Singapore macrofauna at Chek Jawa, Kok Sheng's project has been featured in Protecting nature's beauty in The Straits Times (September 10, 2007), Embracing Passion Going Places, the NUS Advertorial in The Straits Times (March 25, 2008) and Tuesday Report: Children Of The Earth on Channel 8, Mediacorp TV (July 8, 2008). Kok Sheng is also a volunteer with TeamSeagrass, Naked Hermit Crabs and Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research. He also runs the Chek Jawa Mortality and Recruitment Project blog and God's Wonderful Creation blog.
Came across this lovely Discodoris boholiensis at Cyrene in a seagrass (Halodule uninervis and Enhalus Acoroides)patch. It's striking pattern was an eye catcher.
6am....the hunters are out hunting....the Semakau intertidal zone is a rather unusual place to find a dog-faced water snake. We've encountered them in the Pasir Ris mangroves....hordes of them all looking for food...fish...they are expert hunters of small fish.
We came across this specimen (about 60cm long) [the biggest one seen so far was about 1.2m] whilst en route to the Semakau seagrass transect 1 just past the storm canal.
Although mildly venomous (if you are a small fish)...it is mostly harmless to humans...although getting sprayed with snake faeces is not a nice thing if you decide to pick one up and it does a 'helicopter' on you.
The seagrass lagoon at Semakau is a very important place for young marine organisms to take shelter from predators. The young include both shrimp and fish fry. The dense seagrass lagoons make it difficult for larger fish to find the smaller fish or shrimp fry and this allows for more fry to reach adulthood and pro-create the next generation. Seagrass lagoons therefore play an important part in ensuring our fish stocks are managed well. Without seagrass lagoons, our fish stocks will be greatly reduced.
A well managed seagrass lagoon is a crucial asset to ensuring that our local waters are good breeding grounds for young fish and shrimp.
