Was heading out of the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve at about 6pm with a friend 'Sol' on 23Feb2014 when i saw a suspiciously familiar green printed plastic bag near another large white plastic bag. Could it be another care-less-ly discarded ice bag from an offshore fishfarm?
Given the recent parliamentary interest in such issues, (see http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/specialreports/parliament/videos/offshore-fish-farm-owners/1002002.html), I decided to take a closer look and carefully (looking out for any snakes) descended a little down the embankment near Platform 1 to retrieve the bags.
True enough, the green printed plastic bag was an used JM Ice bag.
(Sol helping to spread out the bag with his shoe on the gravel trail.)
I removed the discarded ice bag from the trail floor and draped around a low branch nearby so the reserve's cleaning contractors could it remove it when they see it.
The other large white plastic bag was tied up with a single knot. It did not take long to look around the first few bags. The large white bag contained several other plastic bags which looked soiled containing reddish and brownish liquid residue and some fish scales. The bags smelled of fish. I'm guessing that these bags had once contained fish. Without wanting to get too dirty, I did not go further tugging at those bags. There was another hint of a green bag in the larger bag. A quick pull showed this for what it was.
It was also a green printed plastic bag had been folded over in the large white bag. This green plastic bag was another JM Ice bag.
It is obvious that Singapore's own western sector offshore fishfarms are not disposing of their trash in a responsible way despite the provision of a large skip tank and a smaller biological waste bin at the Lim Chu Kang jetty.
The site where the bags were found was very close to a large offshore fishfarm where one can see whitish bags piled up at selected corners of the floating pontoons.
If this is a common practice at the offshore fishfarms to use such bags and leave them lying around close to the edge, is it possible that someone discarded the bags over the side instead of bringing them to a centralized collection point at the other end of the pontoon?
The site where the bags were found was very close to a large offshore fishfarm where one can see whitish bags piled up at selected corners of the floating pontoons.
The overall trash disposal system seriously needs to be improved. An effective industry-wide solution must be implemented to prevent such occurrences from happening.
Perhaps a trash collection system which services each set of floating fish pens on a daily basis coupled with penalizing provisions for poorly managed fishfarms (leaving unmarked trash too close to the side) will be the best way to cut down such littering.
Or it could mandated that all bags (fish meal, ice and whatever else) and other supplies going to the fish farms must be numbered individually on all sides of the bags and the suppliers and the governing authority keep a record of which numbered bags go to which farms. This would enable better accountability as discarded bags could then be traced and the perpetrators punished for littering the sea. It is extremely difficult to catch such litterbugs and perhaps even more difficult to retrieve the litter once it goes into the sea.
Also, penalties could be imposed where fishfarms are found with bagged supplies which are unnumbered or where farms are spotted with trash items placed to close to the edge risking the items being blown into the surrounding water by the wind (which is not an excuse for such litter by any sense, common or uncommon).
We need to take better care of our coastal environment.
It's up to us to do what we can. Hopefully, the powers-that-be understand the wider implications of the off-shore fishfarm trash issue and work towards trash-free-shores.
So far the position taken by the 'powers-that-be' has been disappointing. Whilst the western offshore fishfarms have a rubbish skip and bin to bring waste to (at the condemnable Lim Chu Kang jetty) (it is in a shocking state of disrepair), the eastern offshore fishfarms (which use Changi Village Ferry Terminal) have not had the benefit of such provision ... ever. So where have the eastern offshore fishfarms dumped the waste generated from their operations all these 10, 20, 30 or more years? Why hasn't anyone done anything about it?
Closeby to where the bags were found, there were a few EPS foam boxes stuck between the mangrove trees. EPS foam boxes are commonly used on the offshore fish farms.
These will break up ravaged by the waves into millions of tiny plastic spheres over time and pollute the coastal environment upon further degradation with microplastics.
These will break up ravaged by the waves into millions of tiny plastic spheres over time and pollute the coastal environment upon further degradation with microplastics.
The fish we eat deserve microplastic-free waters. Don't we? Since we eat those fish?!
[See these links for information on microplastics - Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4, Link 5, Link 6, Link 7]
[See these links for information on microplastics - Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4, Link 5, Link 6, Link 7]
Singapore spends millions of dollars to keep mainland Singapore clean. What about our coastal environment?
We really need to take better care of our coastal environment.
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