Got to Ubin just before the press gang reached there at about 1pm. Met up with Hang Chong, Alyce and some other hardy volunteers at the NParks' Ubin Volunteer Hub. They had spent the morning braving the crude on the CJ shore. After some short interviews, the press gang headed out to CJ along with NUS' Prof. Peter Ng, Sivasothi N. and senior NParks officers.
CJ was a buzz of activity. There were loads of Indian and Bangladeshi workers in orange and yellow worksuits, hardhats and gloves. Carrying, transporting, heaving, pushing white plastic bags of soiled rags and dirty sand used or collected from the CJ shore. Some, exhausted, were taking a break under the shade of the trees, recharging themselves for more work when the tide went down after an afternoon high.
The workers were from two companies activated apparently by MPA/NEA/NParks. 107 of them were from Kim Eng Shipyard and about 20 were from Lian Shing ?. The Lian Shing 20 were 'experienced' at oil slick duties having spent the previous day fighting the worst of the crude.
Not having seen what the slick at CJ had been like the previous day, it was unsettling enough to see what remained after one day. Absorbent booms, some long since spent (i.e dark brown), lined some parts of the shore near the boardwalk section closest to House #1. There was still a very visible thick sheen on the surface of the water and the water looked deceptively inviting apart from the crude smell of crude.
At certain parts, a thick brown sludge could be seen in patches and there were scattered blobs all over.
No dead fish or other sick looking animals seen on the surface. Bearing in mind that this was about 24 hours after the slick stuck CJ at a time when the tide was at its highest the previous day, perhaps all the dead creatures were on the bottom or had joined the flow of the ebbing tide away from the shore. (The low tide later that evening did not show any dead creatures too.)
There were two boats (Bridgewater & Camelia) further out about 150m from the boardwalk and they had attached between them a long floating boom. The boats were about 300 or 400m apart and it looked like the float was to prevent any further slick from impacting the CJ shore.
As usual with the waters around CJ, there was marine litter floating in on the surface. This time, all of it had crude oil all over. These items will eventually be pushed by the waves on to the shore and into the mangrove areas.
Walking along the boardwalk, it was easy to spot the crude residue on the lower branches and leaves of the mangrove trees. Not a palatable sight for tree lovers. The brown goo stuck to the leaves despite the waves.
Some ketapang tree (Sea Almond) leaves seemed to have been bleached of chlorophyll. However, these were isolated leaves and it may be that the cause of the discoloration was something else apart from the crude or the chemical dispersants used.
The usual congregations of mudskippers were missing from the granite rocks in the water near the boardwalk. Only a few were seen seeming to patiently wait for the tide to subside. They did not seem distressed although there were much fewer numbers seen on the rocks. Prof Peter Ng mentioned that mudskippers are one of the more resilient coastal species which should enable them to ride out the slick avoiding any immediate effects...however, long term effects may however tell a different story. Hopefully we do not see any dead dugongs, sea otters, sea kraits or shore birds at CJ as a result of the slick.
The mangrove trees and their wide reaching roots had already trapped some contaminated flotsam items. The workers were busy scraping the sand and wiping sludge covered roots which were within reach. Picking up litter was not topmost on the instruction list although some sludge covered items were removed with the contaminated top-sand.
Mangrove tree roots provided a natural place for accumulations of crude sludge.
There was a particular short bay at the northern part of CJ which seemed to be where the slick hit the shore...ground zero. The other side of the mangrove clump was free of crude.
A few metres further up beyond the clump of mangroves (near a huge truck tire embedded in the sand), there was little sign of any sludge residue at all. There was a group of workers busy clearing the sand higher up the shore. However, lower down near the water line, each wave brought more brown goo onto the sand. One worker tried dragging his shovel to clear the brown goo but it got replaced almost immediately with more goo with each wave. He quickly abandoned the idea.
Luckily, Singapore's new favourite in demand item that weekend, the giant white absorbent boom tampon was quickly requested and the workers carried the various bundles the 400m distance from the pickup point near the mid-point of the boardwalk to the northern shore. Several 'tampons' were lined up over about 100m and placed interconnected along the Northern shore towards the boardwalk area. The ends were tied down to the nearby mangrove trees in the hope that the continuous booms would soak up the residual sludge and crude particles. I did not think these would have much effect. (but I was surprised 24 hours later when a visit the next day showed that the booms did have a good amount of success).
Some of the workers were busy manually wiping the lower sections of the mangrove tree roots. This seemed like a very good idea but the gianormous task of wiping each and every mangrove root free of the sludge is an equally mindboggling task as each tree had somewhere between 20 to 40 roots shoots and many of these were intertwined and unreachable. Some workers continued to use their gloves but others had resorted to using their bare hands to hold the rags.
Given the numerous trees within a short 50m stretch, it was certain that they would not finish their task that day let alone the weekend.
The workers stopped work at about 6.00pm but had to clear the collected bags and their tools for the next day's cleanup. I was surprised that there was no night cleanup crew. This was an 'office hours' only cleanup eventhough it was a low-tide evening.
With the tide almost at it's lowest in the early evening, some herons flew in to feed. They did not seem bothered by the oily sheen on the water although I did not see any bird attempt to strike at a fish in the water. They were looking but did not see. Perhaps the oily sheen prevented the birds from seeing past the surface. They would go hungry that evening.
The mudskippers were less active than they normally were and there were fewer of them out.
The sand bubbler crabs were slowly appearing from their burrows.
I wonder how these crabs would fare over the next few weeks as their eating habits necessitate licking the grains of sand which will eventually be interspersed with crude oil micro-clumps due to the effects of the chemical dispersants used. Time till tell....but no one had ever paid any attention to the tiny sand bubbler crabs at Chek Jawa. If they do die out because of the slick, how long will it take for new crabs to take their place? And will this have an chain effect on the other parts of the Chek Jawa ecosystems?
