semakau seagrass lagoon @ 01Feb2014

Went on a short boat ride looking for oil from the recent ship collisions.
(see Link 1, 2)

On the way to Semakau, ...

Bukom's southern seawall seems to have some dark banding indicative of an oil-spill. The brown spots could be some other localised spill. Wonder what could have caused those spots.

The bad news is that Semakau's northern shore may have had some exposure to some of the oil-spill. There was a distinct dark line on the seawall. 

Whilst the others in the recce went to explore the Northern shore and Terumbu Semakau, I went Westwards along the seagrass lagoon.

The good news is that it looks like Semakau's seagrass lagoon was clear of oil. The seagrass lagoon and shore were 'normal'. No oil seen on the inter-tidal area, shore or on the fringing mangrove trees. That is a good sign.

'Normal' however means a whole lot of trash on the high shore line. Lots of plastic items which had floated in with the tides over many many years still line the shore. 

note the styrofoam box high in the tree

a 3 foot long fluorescent light bulb

bundles of rope

an SPC oil drum

a plastic road barrier

a huge piece of blue plastic sheeting

an old sofa

one of the gazillion mineral water cups and water bottles

a large prawn feed bag

This was a balloon stuck high up on a mangrove tree.

We really should take better care of our marine environment.

At the southern end of the seagrass lagoon, lots was happening.

This chap had harvested quite a few large mud crabs from the mangrove inlet.

Another few were harvesting shells from the inter-tidal zone whilst another laid out a long driftnet on the inter-tidal zone.

 A ciggarette butt was care-less-ly dropped in the water.

A quick chat with one of them showed them to be contractors at the landfill site out to gather a quick seafood dinner. 

They promptly agreed to return their haul to the lagoon and to recover the driftnet that was being laid out.

 No fan clam soup tonight.

The men soon left in their vehicles parked atop the service road. 

The mud-crabs were however not released. Looks like crab curry tonight.

 

There were two long driftnets long abandoned at the South-Western tip of the seagrass lagoon. These looked like they had been on the inter-tidal for some time. (There was a third driftnet at the Northern part of the seagrass lagoon.) 

 A super long driftnet attached at one end to the replanted mangrove trees and the other to a rock on the inter-tidal zone. 

These carpet anemones will not last very long with the driftnet filaments draped over them.

These driftnets will need some tedious work to remove them and the various organisms that become stuck in them.

That's a task for another day with more time. 

It soon got dark during the long walk back up the lagoon.

Can you name the following ?

Have a look here for help.

Good night Semakau!

See these links for news on the collisions and oil-spills. (Link 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Read about what the others saw :

Peiyan's Kusu Island check : Link

Peiyan's Semakau check : Link

Wonderful Creation's check : Link

Singapore Reef Watch's check : Link

WildSingapore's 4 Feb 2014 summary update on the oilspills : Link

NEA 4 Feb 2014 Advisory : Link 

Revisiting an Oil Spill impact zone - 11Dec2010

Headed down to the lost coast at Tanah Merah East this morning for a morning hike.

There was obvious brown oily residue coating various parts of the shore including the riverbed, the large middle tidal pool and the smaller far tidal pool (near the Changi Aerospace Exhibition plot). However, these were from the earlier oil spill in Singapore waters and not the one a few days ago in Johor. There were no signs of any new oil.

It looks like various swathes of oil have been slowly released into the surrounding environment getting washed continually by wave action and mixing with other surface material to form a brown chocolatey scum.

No one seems to have done any cleanup in this area except for the rocky seawall near the Changi Aerospace Exhibition Plot.

It was a shock to see the far tidal pool about to be covered up by huge piles of 'new' sand. The narrow channel previously seen, which had linked the tidal pool to the sea, had been covered up by a thick barrier of sand.

However, it looked like the power of the waves had been underestimated as they seemed to have washed away a large amount of the new sand. It could be a matter of time before the monsoon season waves wreck their will and have their way on the wall of sand.

In the meantime, what was left of the mangrove seedling patch was in a much worse set of circumstances as the tidal pool seemed to be slowly
drying up after having been cut off from the beach. As was seen shortly after the oil spill impacted this section of coast, all the mangrove seedlings were leafless or dead. There were still some tiny fish and also a few small (fat-arm) jellyfish doing their best to survive in the ever more salty and warm water remaining in the pool.

All the greenery which had previously surrounded the tidal pool had been covered up with sand and presumably also all the rubbish which had previously floated in and got caught in the vegetation. There had been copious amounts of trash around the tidal pool ...all of which probably floated in with the highest of tides through the narrow channel.

On a hike earlier this year, Ria Tan had found a very rare mangrove plant called the Pemphis acidula or Mentigi. I wasn't sure where the plant was situated but it was likely in the area or very close to where the new sand was being deposited. Looks like this rare plant may disappear from Singapore yet again. I hope NParks had been able to take a cutting and seeds from it.

See the following links for more infomation about the Mentigi:-
http://wildshores.blogspot.com/2010/01/long-march-to-pemphis.html
http://wildshores.blogspot.com/2010/01/rare-mangrove-tree-mentigi-pemphis.html
http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/plants/mangrove/pemphis/acidula.htm


The earlier efforts at treating the oil covered rocks seemed to have worked as there was hardly any oil residue to be seen on the rocks. However, in between the rocks was a totally different matter. The sand between the rocks was like chocolate cake having absorbed the crude oil.

After so many months since 25May2010, the oil residue still persists.

I remember there was a large area of chocolate sand leading into the tidal pool. This had now disappeared due to the new sand piled on top of it. It looks like the entire tidal pool will be covered up to put the oil residue further out of sight. Piling sand on top seems to be the easiest way of dealing with an environmental eyesore.

The oil persists and it is not going to 'disappear' unlike the rare Pemphis.

ECP Cable-Ski park residual oil sheen 27June2010

Looks like there is still residual oil sheen visible (and smellable) at certain parts of the East Coast Parkway.
The clip shows a residual oil sheen at the bay just outside of the Cable-Ski park. This seems to have been in residence for quite a long time now. The smell is much less apparent but it is still present in the air.

Crude Oi! residue @ Tanah Merah & ECP - 13June2010

Went biking today up to Tanah Merah to check out whether the coast had finally lost it's crude oil.

Looks like there has been some cleanup action in the narrow drainage canal near the CWRP.
Someone had left his crude oil stained gloves on the footpath. Perhaps he thought he was going to come back for it.


The orange boom was still there but it looks like it is beginning to develop tears and cracks. The boom itself did not seem as if it would be effective against a layer of crude as the waves were easily pushing water over the top.


The absorbent booms were still in the canal and these seemed to collect various bits of crude oil coated debris which got washed all over when the tide returned.

Some parts of the canal walls seemed like someone had scrubbed the wall with a sponge. Indeed there was a sponge like fabric which had been left behind near the canal walkway.


Other places looked like someone had used a high pressure water-jet. This left distinctive sharp edge water scrapping marks.


And some spots showed that the crude that had been on the walls was now on the bottom. Like someone had sprayed something to dissolve the crude and it all flowed down to stain the bottom of the canal. Pity the residue was not mopped up somehow.




The returning tide seemed to release some oil from the absorbent booms with each crashing wave.

Generally, the smell of the crude was much less noticeable than before.

The wide canal near the NeWater plant still showed a sheen at various spots. The pic below shows the canal wall heavily stained earlier by crude oil slick and the movement of the absorbent boom which was still tied across the canal had rubbed some of the stain higher up the wall.


The fish in the canal did not seem affected by the sheen.


The rubbish seen earlier at Site 8 had mostly gone....perhaps brought out by the tides over the week or cleaned up subsequently by NEA contractors.


Moving on to Site 7, there was an accumulation of a pile of yellow trash bags which seemed to contain plastic bottles and crude oil coated flotsam wood. Looks like NEA had organised another cleanup during the week. Fantastic!


Also, all the huge white plastic bags filled with crude oil soaked debris had been cleared from the corner but there was a large stain on the carpark floor on the inside of the fence.


A few fishermen lined up along the seawall fronting the ferry terminal. However, there was still some residual brown gunk floating and this gave off the strong unmistakable smell of the crude oil. The fishermen did not seem concerned with fishing so near the small sliver of brown gunk nor the smell emanating from the gunk.

brown crude residue in the water off the ferry terminal seawall

Here is a videoclip of the residual slick :

Further down at East Coast Parkway, there was the distinctive smell of crude oil in the bays fronting and near the East Coast Sea Sports Club. The sand which had been disturbed by beach users showed the unbearable brownness of being a former crude oil slick now since globuled up by dispersants. Looks like each successive wave action will cover up the brown stuff for someone to kick it up later. This will take a very long time to 'disappear'.




Here is a videoclip of the shore :

There was a nice gentleman windsurfer who had spent a few minutes of his time clearing a stretch of shore of plastic material and styrofoam and put them into 4 neat piles for clearance by the park cleaners. We need more people like this chap!

one of the four piles with the surfer in the background on the oily sand

At Bedok jetty, the beach adjacent to the jetty also showed signs of the brown stuff mixed in the sand.

My nose started to twitch again near the Cable-Ski Park past the Lagoon Hawker Centre. There was more of the brown stuff in the water just outside the Cable-Ski Park bridge.

Heading back up the coast, I came across a lone contract cleaner sweeping along another section of the ECP beach.

Looks like the oil will remain on or 'in' the beach for some time more. Meantime, if you do go into the water....don't swallow! ...and bring a bar of soap to wash off that 'natural' radiating glow!