Tanah Merah ICCS Site 8 and 9 recce
Looks like there is now a foreign worker dormitory at Tanah Merah with some units having sea views and sea breezes.
another look at the 'resort' from across the adjacent wide canal
Sadly, the seaward fringing shores along Tanah Merah are however not as good as they could be...because there is no regular cleaning done at this stretch of shore...unlike the nearby recreational East Coast Parkway beaches....and there is a whole LOT of trash which floats in on a daily basis with the tides.
Strangely, even the path to the Tanah Merah shore is heavily littered with all sorts of paper and plastic...probably left behind by the ubiquitous fisherman who patronise the canal and shore every now and then.
Moving on to the shore...
the incredible accumulation of plastic material near the seawall corner of the wide canal exit.
plastic (and some glass) bottles which previously contained all manner of liquid contents form a thick strandline about between 1.0 to 1.5m wide at the high tide level.
this long stretch of Tanah Merah (which sits on land long since reclaimed) is about 1.5km long (ending at a construction staging site) and consists of scratchy bush and shrub and seems to occasionally catch fire so much so that fire hydrants have been installed at regular intervals.
occasionally, there are breaks in the forest between the road and the shore created by fishermen for easier access.
back on the shore, there was even a gas tank waiting to rust away.
...and more plastic...
...much more...
hope 'Ernest Tee' is well... "hey Ernest! you missing a life jacket?"
maybe Ernest lies somewhere below all that plastic...
(pardon the dark humour)
styrofoam is also a common item on this shore
Sometimes, ship ropes are found - perhaps ships should have their names permanantly printed or tagged on the ropes for greater accountability?
the rubbish is neverending...
rubbish even accumulates on the higher parts of the shore...these must have been left behind during a particularly high tide or stormy weather.
near the far end of the very long shore...still lined with of a band of trash
inevitably, a lot of trash gets blown into the undergrowth by strong winds.
the overgrown green creepers lining the entire shore could possibly be hiding a significant volume of trash.
the overgrown green creepers lining the entire shore could possibly be hiding a significant volume of trash.
plastic flotsam as far as the eye can see...
there were at some locations a high accumulation of wood too. Wood will decompose enventually but they would create an environment suitable for insects like sandflies which are commonly encountered at Tanah Merah.
There was a band of plastic flotsam averaging about 1 metre wide all along the1.5km shore. This is a whole lot of plastic which our seas and oceans cannot afford to be dumped with.
where does all this plastic come from?
what can YOU do about it?
Hopefully, the upcoming mid-Sept coastal cleanup effort can help alleviate some of the plastic problem on this stretch of Singapore's shores. If not, the tides may push the load further down to the recreational East Coast Parkway beaches where there is regular cleaning (mostly completed before most park visitors get to the park in the mornings). Or the plastic joins the vortexes of trash already present and ever-growing and further plasticising our oceans. Our future may be more ... plastic than we ever imagined!
If you would like to take part in this year's International Coastal CleanUp, do have a look here :
and do take note of the upcoming ICCS Briefing :
International Coastal Cleanup Singapore (ICCS) Briefing Session
Saturday 27 August 2011: 9am – 11.30am.
Lecture Theatre 25 [map]
National University of Singapore
Saturday 27 August 2011: 9am – 11.30am.
Lecture Theatre 25 [map]
National University of Singapore
Read more about plastic in our oceans :-
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