lim chu kang jetty mangrove-beach @ 02 Feb 2014

Went down to Lim Chu Kang jetty to have a look at the condition of the beach.

After all, it has been some time since the last major cleanup on 10 Aug 2013.

(See these links for the yearly National Day cleanups : 2011, 2012, 2013) 

The scene was depressing (as usual and as expected). 

Obviously, the current trash disposal arrangements for the offshore fishfarms are insufficient.

This is the large skip tank before the jetty into which all the offshore fishfarms are supposed to dump their general trash. There is a separate smaller bin for biological waste. These are regularly cleared by 'V8 Environmental' under a contract. (I wonder if there was a tender for this??)

The most unsupervised jetty in Singapore... 

(Civet cats disappear into woks but that is a different story for another day).

This is at the corner which meets the Police Coast Guard base fence. There was also a lot of trash on the inside of the fence. I doubt anyone clears the trash on either side of the fence.

A fishmeal bag nicely tied up. 

There is a huge amount of plastic and expanded polystyrene (EPS foam) accumulated at this corner.

...including some ubiquitous blue chemical drums.

a view of the mangrove shore front. That big black bumper has been there for a few years. It is super heavy.

A makeshift shelter to while away the day. 

the path leading to the mangrove shore...

Lots and lots of mainly plastic trash and EPS foam.

 more plastic trash and EPS foam.

 and even more plastic trash and EPS foam with all kinds of general waste (eg. light bulbs) as well.

 the waves bring in more trash. (spot the plastic trash hidden by the fallen leaves)

Fish meal bags are always a common sight on this shore. Where could this have come from? Can we simply blame the Malaysian fish farms for tossing over the side trash and the currents for bringing the trash from Malaysian waters? I think not.... why? There might be some trash coming from across the Straits, but we clearly do have sources much closer to our shores. See the last two pics in this post. 

some larger pieces of unwanted trash strewn all over the place.

The smaller blue bin supposedly used for biological waste (eg. dead fish) is seen in front of the much larger general waste skip tank.

NOTE : there is no similar skip tank and separate biological waste bin for the offshore fishfarms operating from Changi Village Jetty.

Are ALL the fish farms using these receptables? Sadly, No. Perhaps some are but not all of them.

The item pictured below seen on the shore is clear that trash from our local fish farms are finding their way into the coastal waters.

What is it?

This is a plastic bag which used in the supply of ice by JM Ice, a local ice supplier.

JM Ice supplies ice to various offshore fish farms using these bags. 

Obviously, one of the Singapore offshore fishfarms carelessly disposed of this bag... and it ended up on the shore. (Entirely plausible and it seems to be the most likely explanation though there may be another less likely source of this bag being found on the shore).

It would be unfathomable to think that JM Ice supplies the fishfarms across the Straits of Johor with ice. Is it?

Perhaps a trash collection system serving each of the fishfarms on a regular basis can be implemented for the fishfarms including a proper monitoring system to check on the fishfarms.

There needs to be a better system in place. 

We need to take better care of our marine environment.

Thoughtful clips worth watching ...

http://coastalcleanup.wordpress.com/2014/02/07/attenborough-one-of-the-most-important-films-ever-made-away-a-film-about-plastic-pollution-in-oceans/

http://coastalcleanup.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/every-little-bit-adds-up-an-encouraging-two-minute-video-to-keep-our-waterways-clean/

http://coastalcleanup.wordpress.com/2014/02/10/the-curse-of-plastics-in-beautiful-norway-as-much-as-it-is-everywhere/

Find out more about the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore fight to keep Singapore's shores clean : http://coastalcleanup.nus.edu.sg/index.html

http://coastalcleanup.wordpress.com/

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 

lone otter - scratched @ SBWR 30Jan2014

The lone otter showed up again at the SBWR visitor centre pond at about 1.45pm. It swam around in the pond discovering the monitors around and in it putting the monitors on the alert for a nip. The otter was however not in the mood for teasing some monitors. It soon went up to the old sandbox and started rubbing itself on the ground and against the sand box sides. After about 10 minutes of this, it lay still beside the sandbox occasionally opening its eyes when passing visitors entering and leaving the adjacent path made too much noise. The visitors were however oblivious of its prescence until the otter was pointed out to them. The pointing out however encouraged noisy reaction from some visitors. The otter decided to move further towards the rear of the sandbox and caught a few zzzzs...occasionally rousing when the noise level generated by passing visitors bothered it.

Later at about 6.30pm, it was seen around the seawall mound opposite Platform 1. The low tide (about 0.3m) made it easy to catch fish. It caught a fish and quickly crunched into it for a few minutes before swimming around to the western edge of the seawall again diving underwater in the shallows looking for fish. It was watched over by some herons who were also looking out for dinner before the night's roost.

It was fortunate that the otter was at the western edge instead of the eastern edge of the seawall mound as a fisherman had laid a long driftnet from the eastern edge. The givewaway float, a plastic bottle tied to something below the water could be seen at the eastern edge.

*See note below.

The lone otter (very visibly a male) made its way up the seawall mound and rubbed itself against the granite rocks and enjoyed the sunset for a bit. A clear hairline could be seen at back of the neck. It looked as if the otter had been on the receiving end of a barber's razor blade causing it to loose some hair or skin even.

This hairline can be seen in the earlier video clip (from 00:37 - 2:35). It looks like a deep horizontal gash about 5 cm long had somehow been inflicted at the back of the neck.

The otter spent a few minutes on the seawall mound before cautiously walking off the mound. (This seems to be the same otter which was reportedly seen to have injured its left rear leg. This one was also seen to be limping similarly and presumably it was the same injured otter.)

Note :
*(Later at about 7pm, the fisherman was seen passing by in his kayak going westwards across the Northern side of Pulau Buloh presumably to check on another driftnet. Pulau Buloh lies within the area gazetted as a Nature Reserve but the fishermen don't seem to care that their nets pose a danger to animals of the reserve such as otters, crocodiles and shorebirds which may get caught in the nets.)
The driftnets used by these unlicensed fishermen have been documented to have a disastrous effect.
See : http://sgbeachbum.blogspot.sg/2011/07/rip-great-billed-heron-sbwr.html
and http://budak.blogs.com/the_annotated_budak/2008/10/crocked.html
If you do visit SBWR, and notice the fishermen's prescence, do alert the park officers.