Since Chay Hoon didn’t have enough time to take many photos, I thought I’d share these that I took while doing the general reef survey.

A school of three Many-spotted Sweetlips (Plectorhynchus chaetodontoides). I was told later by the fish surveyors that another two were under the coral head below these three.

Two HUGE Ceratosoma nudibranchs.

A fairly uncommon Lemon Damsel (Pomacentrus moluccensis). Last time I saw this was in 2003, I think.

NUS had a research project there are Satumu, using fiberglass modules as substrate for corals to grow on. The results, I would say, speak for themselves (at least for this site):

And despite Satumu being so far away from the mainland, you can still this, which I removed.

Gunny sack wrapped around a coral.

More stories and photographs on the Satumu dive at Chay Hoon’s and Hui Bing’s blogs, and also pictures on Raffles Lighthouse itself (OK, just the one, actually) and the underwater fauna that call it home at my Pulau Satumu set on Flickr.

HI everyone,

We’ve been having some trouble with our website and emails lately. The website issues have mostly been resolved, thanks to our web magician Jacki, but email is still a bit cranky. Some of your emails to the “.bluewatervolunteers.org” email accounts might not get through, so, alternative email accounts to write to are:

Reef Walk: reefwalk@gmail.com
Reef Friends: reeffriends@gmail.com

I’ll post again when our problems are all sorted out.

Cheers, Jeff

A (very) long overdue post on the Reef Celebrations held at Botany Centre, Singapore Botanic Gardens on 8 and 9 Aug 2008.

Much fun was had by all at the event, although there were a couple of hic-cups along the way.

At the 11th hour, we were informed that our Guest-of-honour, Prof Tommy Koh, was called away, which left Francis (Chariman IYOR 08 Singapore) and Prof Chou (our keynote speaker) to hold the fort. Francis, ever the charmer, managed to hold the attention of the almost 100-strong audience, with his vision of what the IYOR 08 Singapore could achieve – a coral paradise in Singapore by 2018.

Francis at the podium speaking to the packed Function Hall.

Prof Chou’s keynote address was interesting – it was, at once, funny, sobering, and filled with hope for our beloved reefs.

Prof Chou, relating his experience with Singapore reefs, and possibilities for the future.

Sivasothi, considered by many to one of the “founding fathers” of the conservation volunteer movement in Singapore, also gave his perspective on the effectiveness of marine conservation NGOs in getting the conservation message across to the public.

The programme also included a ceremonial handing over of a donation by TMX Pte Ltd, the owner of Asian Dive Expo and Boat Asia to the IYOR 08 Singapore committee. The monies were collected during the last Dive Expo, and amounted to S$5,000, which was to be used for marine conservation events.

The event did not end with the last of the speeches – besides the makan, there was a great deal of interaction between the audience and the conservation groups at the display area.

The next day was just as crowded – especially with the sidewall of the Function Hall open, creating an inviting environment for visitors to the Gardens to attend the talks, the colouring activity of the Naked Hermit Crabs, and ask questions of the volunteers manning the booths. All in all, an estimated 400-500 people had taken part in the event.

The day (finally) ended, with one final round of presentations by each conservation group to the assembled volunteers, some of whom had not had the chance to tour the other displays.

A final whirlwind of activity ensued, as volunteers dismantled the displays and packed away all the (dead) specimens. In less than 30 minutes, what took the better part of Thursday afternoon to setup was taken down and put away … ready for use at the next event, whenever that may be.

More pictures of the event can also be found at:
IYOR 08 Singapore Launch

A long overdue post (one of several).

Here are the results of the coral reef survey at Sisters on 19 Jul 08.

The shallow transect

The deep transect

Received this email a couple of days ago from Eric:
………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Dear Friends,

The documentary that I made last year- “Remember Chek Jawa”, as many of you may have watched, will be officially releasing a DVD (yes…finally ) on 16 Aug 2008, 2pm at Kinokuniya Takashimaya and 22 Aug at Books Actually Bookstore, 730-8pm. The distributor is Objectifs Films. The films first 300 copies will be on sale at Kinokuniya, Books Actually Bookstore and Objectifsfilms. I intend to place it at some diveshops for sale soon. More on that later I have also included some special features of extra unreleased interviews and photos (mostly from Ria Tan).

Part of sales proceeds will go to local marine conservation work by “Blue Water Volunteers”.

Cheers
Eric Y W Lim
http://chekjawa.net
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Congratulations, Eric! Will be there at the Launch tomorrow in support of this event. Hope to see you all there too!

Cheers, Jeff