News on upcoming plans for the Southern Islands, including our dear Kusu:
http://www.wildsingapore.com/news/20061112/061129-1.htm

Should we celebrate or panic?

More in a bit…

This post is inspired by Hawaii’s designation as a marine reserve, and a little by “Diving in Singapore: A tribute part II” at The Blue Tempeh.

I’m back in Hawaii again… but this time I’m not going to dive, because I don’t think the diversity is worth my cash (and I’m broke anyway…). I’ve learnt my lesson…

But it doesn’t hurt to snorkel, and so I did, every other day here at Coconut Island where I’m attending a workshop. As expected, water is somewhat clear, with vis about 15m. Mind you this is snorkelling near shore… In Singapore, if there’s a place you can snorkel and see the benthos from the surface, I’d be very surprised… of course this excludes your fish tank and Underwater World.

This time I was initially quite happy cos this time, it’s reef I’m looking at, not some wreck with near-zero coral cover… So I see Pocillopora damicornis (present in Singapore too)…

Then there’s this one, Montipora capitata (range extends to Singapore)…

And then there’s Porites compressa…

This one is pretty cool, cos its endemic to this area… But then, the whole island seems to be just that, and that’s it! Everywhere else I’ve looked is so homogenous, it’s scary… Then I recalled Singapore’s reefs… Let’s see it again…

Wow… I’m so missing Singapore reefs…

I had said this previously, “So I was thinking, if the Hawaii state government decides to reclaim land and cover their reefs, say hypothetically land is limited… maybe just the one shown above, what would the response be? Not pretty… people all over the world would probably make noise… ”

Well, this didn’t happen. But the opposite did… Northwestern Hawaiian Islands went under US environmental protection in June, becoming the world’s biggest protected marine reserve… stretching 2,250 km and covering 362,600 sq km. That is an awful lot of land! And what? There’s less than 50 species of hard corals there???!!!

Hey!!! Singapore has almost 200 species!!! And we can’t even hold off destruction of the reef at Pulau Ular… Is it that hard to confer protection to just a small little offshore island? Like Pulau Hantu is only 12.2ha… The potential for ecotourism is so great… I mean, suckers like me would pay US$103.12 to attempt to see 50 species of corals (I saw only 2 btw…), I’m quite sure there are people who are craving to see 4 times that diversity in Singapore (it’s actually more, cos diversity is probably thousands of times greater if we account for area)… Perhaps with some clearer waters… If only we could halt or slow down coastal development and reclamation in Singapore…

Sigh… I wonder when decision-makers up there will become as proud as nature lovers in Singapore of the wealth of marine life here…

The Straits Times 31 Mar 06

CONSERVATIONISTS hoping to create a marine sanctuary on Pulau Hantu have embarked on the first step…

Plans are under way to create a simple sand filtration system to eliminate most of the sediment from the water flowing into the lagoon, creating a clear water habitat. The SEC’s $100,000 census is the first phase of what it hopes will lead to the creation of a marine sanctuary nestled within the lagoon of Pulau Hantu…

Also speaking at the media conference, the president of the Nature Society of Singapore, Nominated Member of Parliament Geh Min, lauded the effort. She said a nation’s ‘true progress’ is measured by how well it balances its natural heritage with industrial development. ‘Project Noah is an attempt to show that we can have it all – a successful port, industries and nature.’

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“Natural heritage” ???!!!
Where??? What???

Sounds more like a giant aquarium tank…
I think I might already have a name for it though: Underwater World II (not in Sentosa, and likely to cost more than $19.50?)

Well… at least something is being done…
Effort: 100%
Imagination: 99%
Logic, science: ?

This post is inspired by “A tribute to Singapore’s coral reefs. PART 1.” at The Blue Tempeh, and is an appendix as it will not be as extensive as that.

I recently paid US$103.12 for 2 dives at Hawaii while on some other business there. I think many would as well. The dive boat was full, with some of the divers diving for many consecutive days, and raving about how diverse Hawaii’s reefs are. Well, upon entering the water, I was immediately wowed by the clarity of the water. Clear blue, something that Singapore has failed to maintain…

But as I made my descent, I see this…

How many species in this picture? I only see one… (Pocillopora meandrina)

Well, I did see another… (Porites lobata)

But that is about all at two dive sites located at the south shore of Oahu… let’s take a look at Singapore… St John’s Island…

Need I say more? The number of species is so high we can see different species fighting to stay here… competition between coral species is tough here, but they have done well to stay for the past hundred million years or so…

Coral competition and the dead zone between them

Unfortunately, competition has increased, between reefs and man… obviously humans are at an advantage in Singapore because we have fancy ships and lots of sand from elsewhere to respectively ram against and pile on top of these poor animals…

So I was thinking, if the Hawaii state government decides to reclaim land and cover their reefs, say hypothetically land is limited… maybe just the one shown above, what would the response be? Not pretty… people all over the world would probably make noise…

Now as you read this, some reef in Singapore is going to be lost, but who makes/made noise? Hmm… maybe a few people who petitioned and a lone ranger in parliament.

The thing is, I don’t even think where we dove in Hawaii was a reef, just some corals scattered on lava rocks… but thousands are willing to fork out that kind of money to dive there (many times over), and likely protest if it’s under threat. As mentioned in The Blue Tempeh, Singapore is situated near the “Coral Triangle”, and corals are plenty here. 197 species here vs less than 50 in the whole Hawaiian archipelago (Veron, 1995). But the truth is, not many know we have reefs, let alone understand this fact… Reefwalk just received its 1000th visitor to Kusu. But that’s as much as such programmes can do (including Chek Jawa walks and some others)…

It’s time we start raving about the 197 coral species we may still possess, before its gone, forever. We ought to be charging 4x US$103.12 or receiving 4x thousands of visitors to Singapore reefs for the 4x more diverse corals here. Ok, that’s not how we should do business, but you get my point…

Those of you reading this probably knows more or less of this… time to go beyond the usual crowd.

Official Opening of Semakau Landfill for Recreational Activities, by Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim.

The Blue Water Volunteers were there to set up the Reef Exhibits booth, create awareness and make our presence felt! Getting pictures of VIPs visiting the booth is rather difficult when you’re short and surrounded by press photographers with their HUGE cams plus a crowd of other important people….. So we only got pictures of other very important people – those closer to our hearts:

A lady admiring posters of the rich marine life on our shores.

Former residents of Pulau Semakau and Pulau Sakeng browse through all the photos we have, reliving happy memories of life on the island. This particular lady is thrilled to recognise most of the marine organisms. “Oh! Batu Orkid!” (Oh! Orchid-rock!) as she points at pictures of some corals. When she sees a picture of a scorpion fish, she recounts how she had been stung twice, and the best remedy for stings is to rub ‘belacan’ on the affected area!

She tells us how she would catch featherduster worms, and sell them as bait for 20 cents. Then she sees the picture of a tape seagrass fruit and says “Oh, ini sedap!” (This is tasty!) and her friend goes on to warn us that if we ate the fruit we will turn into “ikan duyung” (mermaids)!

Jani was on hand to greet and speak to Dr Yaacob Ibrahim. Luckily, she wasn’t her usual self when he stopped by the booth for a chat…

With KLOG sounding Neanderthal-ish and all, I thought I’d end with this —

Neanderthal Man: You woman, make home. We men, hunt food, feed woman.

But in “KLOG World”, we believe we have to move with the times….. So even our guys are getting into the whole metrosexual-act macho-yet try to look good-thing. They even ‘hunt’ for food with flair…..

Sorry, Danwei and MS! You can’t possibly allow me to take your pic, then not post it rite?

Ok, gotta go get rid of my Stingoes and stock up my first aid kit with belacan for the next walk.

For a more detailed and proper report of what went on, readRia’s post on the WildFilms Blog.