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