Southern Line Islands Expedition

Recently, I found an article on the National Geographic website about the Southern Line Islands Expeditions. What is this project about? Well, participants in this project study the ecology of healthy coral reefs, in hope to learn valuable clues that will help save the world's reefs.

In February and March 2009, the Southern Line Islands Expedition will travel to remote central-Pacific islands like Flint, Vostok and Malden to continue the reef studies done in the Northern Line Islands in 2005 and 2007.

I hope that the project will be a success and the participants will find new ways to save the coral reefs.

You can read more on: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/field/projects/line-islands.html

28 Dec: Chek Jawa Boardwalk

The Naked Hermit Crabs will be organizing a boardwalk at Chek Jawa on 28 December. If you have the time, do go for the boardwalk as it is very interesting and you will get to see many different types of wildlife.

Time: 3 p.m.

Venue: Meet at Chek Jawa Information Kiosk

Duration of walk: 2 hours

To find out more, visit: http://nakedhermitcrabs.blogspot.com/

12 Dec: Sentosa Shore Walk

On 12 December, we went to Sentosa for a shore walk. Here are some interesting things we saw during the walk:

This is a coral skeleton.

Look at this mosiac crab!

Here is the flag used by the Naked Hermit Crabs to mark a spot where there are things for us to see.

Look at this gigantic tire! Although it is a piece of rubbish in the sea, there are wildlife growing on it!

This is a swimming crab. 

Can you spot the hairy crab?

This is the flower of the tape seagrass. We also saw the fruit!

This is a polka-dotted nudibranch. Isn't it pretty?

Corals!!! :)

At the site where we had the walk,the water was amazingly clear and we could see the marine life clearly in the water. I did not expect to see so many different types of marine life, and hope that people will stop polluting the seas so that we will be able to conserve these animals and plants. 

S'pore Coastline Getting Dirtier

I woke up this morning and to my disppointment there was a newspaper article in The Straits Times about Singapore's coastline getting dirtier.  Apparently the coastal cleanup in September found 3,448 pieces of trash, which weighed 9,755kg in total!  The trash included 39 tyres, refrigerators, and the usual rubbish items.

Top 5 Rubbish Items:

1. styrofoam pieces

2. plastic bags

3. cigarette/cigarette filters

4. food containers/wrappers

5. straws/stirrers

Top 5 Dirtiest Beaches:

1. Lim Chu Kang

2. Kranji

3. Pulau Ubin

4. Changi

5. Sembawang

This article reminded me of the 2 big items I saw during our Sentosa Interdial Walk on 12 Dec 08.  

... a giantic tyre

... a beach chair

It seems that our efforts to advise the public on not throwing litter into the sea have made little progress.  I hope that with this post, some of you might change your habits and save marine life. At the same time, do help to spread the message around.

Registration for 2009 International Coastal Cleanup will open in Mar 09 at the website http://coastalcleanup.nus.edu.sg

2 Nov 08: The New Paper Big Walk

On 2nd November, we went to the Big Walk! We participated in the fancy dress contest and decided to use marine life as our theme. The costumes are improvised from using our soft toys, curtains, hats, etc. We even made 2 signboards to promote the saving of marine life.

Although we did not win the contest, we still had a wonderful experience at the Marina Barrage and during the walk. We hope that others will still take note of our message and spread it around the world.

17 Oct 08: Pasir Ris

This is really an overdue post as we were busy with our exams earlier. During that period, we were bored to death with studying and so one evening our parents brought us to Pasir Ris Beach to relax for a while or so. It turned out that it was low tide then, so we went to the beach for a walk.

We saw 2 carpet anemones! At first we thought it was coral until we realised that it was soft and bendy.

There were a lot of dead crabs too. The worst thing was they were found tangled in or alongside rubbish thrown by inconsiderate beach-walkers.

To our surprise, there were starfishes too.

And we saw a ribbonworm!

Hermit crabs wih shells of all shapes and sizes were also found among the rocks. Once again, let me remind you that we should not collect seashells as you are depriving hermit crabs and other animals of a home.

We saw some sea snails too! Unfortunately their shells were covered with muddy sand so we could not see the colours on them. I am sure that they are colourful.

And we saw a man carrying a bag of gong gong, which is a common delicacy in Singaporean seafood. Not sure if they are safe to eat as the waters are so badly polluted.



Worst of all , we saw a dilapidated Hello Kitty handbag! I wonder why its owner had to throw it away as it is polluting the sea and I believe that the bag was in good condition at that time.

Snack and sweet wrappers were a common occurence in the quicksand-like shoreline.

I feel that we should not pollute this sea just because its waters are classified as unsafe to swim in. This will only just make the situation worse.

Whale Stranded

On the 15th of October, a beached Bryde's whale was beached on  Kuala Nenasi estuary in eastern Pahang state. It died a day later despite the villagers' efforts to save it. The shocking thing was that he preliminary findings of an autopsy showed the female had swallowed a black plastic bag, a rope and a bottle cap, which clogged its intestine.

I feel that we should not throw litter into the sea because we are actually harming innocent animals. I hope that this posting will allow you to realise the drastic effects of littering on marine life.  

Young Marine Biologist Award: Winning Blogs

We have not been posting here recently because of the exams. Now that they are finally over, we will continue our regular updates again ;)

Our blog won the 2008 Young Marine Biologist Award (YMBA): Best Blog for Primary Category. We were thrilled!  We hope that with this win, more people will get to know about our blog and hear the voices of the reefs.  We thought that you might want to look at the other winners of the YMBA as well as they are very nicely done up to promote the reefs:

 Secondary Category 

www.theworld-underneath.blogspot.com

Tertiary Category

reef-to-fight-another-day.blogspot.com

New Species Discovered On Aussie Reefs

Did you read the article on The Straits Times yesterday 20 Sep 08? Marine scientists said that they have discovered hundreds of new animal species on Ausse reefs (Great Barrier Reef and Ningaloo Reef). This is a wonderful achievement and I was thrilled with the pictures taken. When I was at Ninglaoo Reef in June 2008, this discovery was not known yet. Anway, I hope that when I next visit Ningaloo Reef, I have the opportunity to view some of the new species :)

I like this twisted nudibranch, (Chromodoris Elizabethina), on the reef face off Heron Island most. It is very bright and colourful.

About half of the 300 soft corals found are thought to be new discoveries, although they will only be given names and classified formally once the scientists have compared them against existing species. Unlike their hard-bodied cousins, soft corals do not build reefs but are nevertheless considered vital for the marine environment. These colourful animals can dominate some regions of the sea, covering up to 25 per cent of the ocean floor.

The latest discovery is a result of a four-year project centred on the extensive coral reefs of western and north-western Australia and is part of a larger effort to take a census of all marine life in the world, due to be finished in 2010. When complete, the census will be used as a "baseline" to try to quantify the rate at which species are becoming extinct in the marine environment. Coral reefs are considered to be the rainforests of the sea because of their rich biodiversity. It is estimated that something between one million and nine million species of marine creatures live in and around coral reefs, but scientists have little idea of the precise numbers.

Here is a dendronepthya soft coral

ans a colonial salp jellyfish

and a ctenophore or comb jellyfish

You can see more pictures on http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2008/sep/18/wildlife.australia?picture=337754721

4 Oct: "Secret Shores of Singapore" Talk at Sungei Buloh

My mum informed me of this talk which will be held on 4 Oct 08 by Ria Tan. She will share on the "Secret Shores of Singapore" through 300-600 recent photos and stories of adventures and discoveries on our living shores. From Changi to Tuas, Sentosa to the Sisters Islands and beyond. Nemos, sea snakes, living corals and more. Ria will also share about some of the threats to our shores, and the many ways ORDINARY PEOPLE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE about our little-known shores. I am sure we can learn from her as she is an ordinary person too.

I know your exams are coming, but if you can steal some time from your revisions, I encourage you to attend.

Time: 10.30am-12noon

Venue: Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve

Website: http://www.sbwr.org.sg/

Contact: info@sbwr.org.sg or call 6794 1401

See more on http://wildsingaporehappenings.blogspot.com/2008/09/4-oct-sat-secret-shores-of-singapore.html

Make Singapore a Coral Haven

This newspaper article is extracted from My Paper published on 10 Sep 08. In the "Blue Plan" proposed by a group of marine conservationists, 10% of the reefs in Singapore should be turned into sanctuaries. These could be categorised into "no-go zones", where access is granted only for scientific purposes. Other areas with limited acess could be allowed, or opened under proper management. I strongly support this movement as it will help in the conservation of the marine life here.You can read more about coral reefs in Singapore at http://coralreef.nus.edu.sg/

Is West Coast Park's Beach a Rubbish Dump?

We went to West Coast Park and were expecting nice scenery along the beach, perhaps even a reef. However, to our horror, this was what we saw...


There was a lot of rubbish scattered along the shoreline, especially water bottles!




We can't even imagine ourselves living in this sort of environment. How about the marine life? This scene looks very bad on the supposedly "tranquil" West Coast Park! We appeal to all of you to do your part, not to litter and help to clean up the coast. The International Coastal Clean-up is coming. Do your part. See
http://coastalcleanup.nus.edu.sg/

We should also learn some lessons from the Japanese, as they are planning the largest clean up event. See
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Japanese_plan_worlds_largest_cleanup_999.html

What are Coral Reefs?

Coral reefs are one of the most biologically diverse marine eco-systems on the Earth! Many think that corals are plants, but they are actually animals.

A coral reef is composed of a calcereous exo-skeleton secreted by billions of tiny animals called polyps. Millions of polyps grow on top of the limestone remains of former colonies to create the massive reefs. It takes years for some corals to grow even one centimetre! They range in size from a pinhead to a few feet in length. Amazingly, these tiny animals form the only natural structure visible from space.

Each polyp lives in a symbiotic relationship with a type of algae, zooxanthellae, that gives the coral its colour.

Read more at: http://www.nature.org/joinanddonate/rescuereef/explore/facts.html

The Coral Reef Ecosystem

The coral reef ecosystem is a diverse collection of species that interact with each other and the physical environment.They are perhaps one type of ecosystem that is neglected more than any other and is also one of the richest in biodiversity. That is why it is very important to protect these natural treasures.

Coral reefs create homes for many different types of animals, from crabs to fishes to turtles! They are like giant cities for marine life. Each and every species of animal in the reef relies on others to keep it alive, so you can imagine what will happen if the reefs are wiped out!

Ocean Threats

Coral reefs are being degraded by an accumulation of stresses arising from human activities and examples of these activities include:

Over-Fishing - There is an increasing demand for food fish and tourism curios, which resulted in over-fishing of not only deep-sea commercial fishes, but key reef species as well! The over-fishing of certain species near coral reefs can affect the ecological balance and biodiversity of the reefs. From subsistence level fishing to the live fish trade, inadequate fisheries management is forcing the decline of fish stocks.

Pollution - Pollution causes the damaging of reefs worldwide. The disposing of litter or unwanted items on beaches, in the sea or near storm drains can damage coral reefs when transported by rivers into coastal waters.

Corals are also affected by climate changes.

Coral Bleaching - This occurs when symbiosis between corals and their symbiotic zooxanthellae breaks down, resulting in the loss of the symbionts and a rapid whitening of the coral host (thus the term "bleaching"). This is actually a stress response by the coral that can be caused by various factors. But the more severe and frequent cases are caused by the rising of the sea surface temperature (SSTs).If the temperature decreases, there is a chance that the corals can recover; but if it persists, the whole colony could be wiped out.

The impacts from coral bleaching are becoming global in scale. They are also increasing in frequency and intensity. Mass coral bleaching generally happens when temperatures around coral reefs exceed 1o C above an area's historical norm for four or more weeks. Sea surface temperature increases have been strongly associated with El Niño weather patterns. However, light intensity, (during doldrums, i.e. flat calm conditions), also plays a critical role in triggering the bleaching response. If temperatures climb to more than 2o C for similar or longer periods, coral mortalities following bleaching will increase.

Other causes such as coral disease can also cause the deterioration of coral species. Most diseases occur in response to the onset of bacteria, fungi, and viruses. However, natural events and human-caused activities may exacerbate reef-forming corals' susceptibility to waterborne pathogens.

The Crown of Thorns Starfish(COTs) is a voracious coral reef predator. Populations of the COTs have increased since the 1970s and large outbreaks of starfish can occur wiping out huge tracks of coral reef. Few animals in the sea are willing to attack the spiny and toxic crown-of-thorns starfish, but some shrimp, worms and species of reef fish do feed on larvae or small adults. The decline of these predators, through over-harvesting and pollution, is one factor contributing to the rise in the population of the starfish.