Who gets the trash?

Look at where Singapore is on the map and where our arrows are pointing. 

Oh look.. a star all to ourselves. the gahmen will be so proud.

"E-waste is routinely exported by developed countries to developing ones, often in violation of the international law. Inspections of 18 European seaports in 2005 found as much as 47 percent of waste destined for export, including e-waste, was illegal. In the UK alone, at least 23,000 metric tonnes of undeclared or 'grey' market electronic waste was illegally shipped in 2003 to the Far East, India, Africa and China. In the US, it is estimated that 50-80 percent of the waste collected for recycling is being exported in this way. This practice is legal because the US has not ratified the Basel Convention. - Greenpeace International"

Read more about what you can do with your old electronic ware from the new ZerowasteSG website. Come to think of it... that old printer has been sitting in my living room collecting dust for quite a few years...

Corallimorphs and shipwrecks

Invasion of the corallimorphs! Wonder if this is happening in our local reefs.

Work TM, Aeby GS, Maragos JE 2008 "Phase Shift from a Coral to a Corallimorph-Dominated Reef Associated with a Shipwreck on Palmyra Atoll" PLoS ONE 3(8): e2989 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002989

Ok.. this isn't the particular species of corallimorph in the paper but i love this.. so bubbly..

Giant cup mushroom coral (Amplexidiscus fenestrafer)

"Corallimorpharians have several life history traits which allow them to rapidly monopolize patches of shallow substrate in tropical habitats. They are competitively superior to some coral species and possess anatomic structures such as elongated marginal tentacles that allow them to kill competing scleractinian corals... Additionally, corallimorpharians have three different modes of clonal replication (fission, pedal laceration and budding) that allow comparatively rapid monopolization of space on the reef...

The subsequent extent of the area dominated by corallimorphs in this study was much greater than other studies where corallimorphs rapidly invaded damaged areas but to a much more localized extent. This may be due to some substance leaching from the ship such as dissolved iron. Iron makes up the major component of steel and other ferrous metals in mooring buoys and ships, and is known to be a limiting resource for many marine organisms. Iron is an essential trace element for algal growth and nitrogen fixation, and equatorial and south Pacific oceanic waters are extremely low in available iron...

The extensive R. howesii invasion and subsequent loss of coral reef habitat at Palmyra Atoll and the potential association of corallimorph invasions with metal objects should serve as a clarion call to managers dealing with large metal objects such as wrecks on reefs. This will be especially relevant at remote low reef islands and atolls such as Palmyra where dissolved iron concentrations may be extremely limiting. The major sources of iron for the oceans are from wind-blown terrestrially derived dust or in coastal regions, from rivers and terrestrial run-off. Islands closer to continental landmasses or reefs at high islands where iron may be available from chemical erosion of volcanic soils may be less vulnerable to impacts of iron enrichment associated with metal objects. If removal of the shipwreck is not possible, regular systematic monitoring of the benthos for invasive organisms, including cnidarians, should be done to verify the rate of spread to support management actions such as removal of the shipwreck."

Dying Moray Eels

Always felt Morays were quite amazing predators.. both shy and vicious. Seeing one writhing like that is rather scary. I hope I never ever get to see this in South-East Asia. Or anywhere for that matter.

"It doesn't sound like there has been any sort of major, published, peer-reviewed, quantitative documentation of this yet. But that said, something is not right when so many sport divers not only count dozens of dead or dying eels.. "

- Shifting Baselines blog

btw... was surfing on moray eels and discovered that groupers and moray eels actually engage in cooperative hunting! its old news but first time i've heard it! Check out the cool videos on the open-access PLoS Biology site.

"They found groupers often visited giant morays resting in their crevices and rapidly shook their heads an inch or so from the eels to recruit them in a joint hunt. At times this call took place after a grouper failed in its hunt because prey escaped into a crevice the grouper could not get into but a giant moray might. If the moray emerged, the grouper guided the eel to a crevice where prey was hiding. Groupers sometimes even performed a headstand and shook its head over a prey hiding place to attract moray eels to the site. At times the moray ate the fish it rooted out, while at other times the grouper did." - MSNBC

Man vs Wild

Was sharing with some friends about 'Into the Wild' and YK then told me about discovery travel series 'Man vs Wild'.

"In the show, Grylls both demonstrates and narrates techniques for wilderness survival in regions around the globe, from ice fields, mountain ranges, swamps and deserts. The general format of each episode is that Grylls is dropped into the region simulating a stranded explorer/tourist. The episode documents his efforts to survive and find a way back to civilization, usually requiring an overnight shelter of some kind.... The program has shown him eating raw meat and live fish, staving off hypothermia, and drinking the fluids of elephant feces and his own urine for hydration."

Caution: video may be disturbing, especially to the frog pple
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Green Porno

I meant to surf on more 'Emptied Oceans' videos after reading Papa Jeff's recent blog entry. But ended up watching porn instead.. ehem.. Sundance porn no less. Enjoy. (Reminder: this is a *ehem* family friendly blog, for more exciting videos in the Green Porno series, click here.)

"Green Porno is a series of very short films conceived, written, co-directed by and featuring Isabella Rossellini. Inspired by the amazing and often bizarre sexual practices of insects and other creatures, these 8 films are both comical and insightful studies of the curious ways a variety of earth's tiny critters 'make love'. Simple, playful and childlike by design, Green Porno provides a unique and provocative glimpse into an 'underground' world of sexual encounters." - Sundance, Green Porno

"It will never affect us."

Don't you think Singaporeans tend to have this apathetic attitude? Pretty sure majority of Singaporeans believe what the local newspapers say, including the recent report that Singapore is safe from rising sea levels. Well.. check this out then:

This is what a group of NUS students found. Singapore will look like this if the Greenland icesheets melt (and sea-level around Singapore rises by 7m). *editted* This sounds like an extreme case scenario, but look at this piece of news: I quote- 

The melting increased by about 30 percent for the western part of Greenland from 1979 to 2006, with record melt years in 1987, 1991, 1998, 2002, 2005 and 2007...Inclusion of the dynamic processes of these glaciers in models will likely demonstrate that the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment underestimated sea-level projections for the end of the 21st century"

Saw this image on a presentation by Prof Wong Poh Poh during a recent talk on climate change and sea-level rise and its implications on coastal management in the Asia Pacific region at the University of Adelaide, Singapore (thanks to BWV mailing list). The vision's pretty haunting don't you think. First thing you think of is.. hmm.. where's my house? ok. never buy a house in the east, next thing i'm thinking.. let's all live on Bukit Timah.. i'm sure it can handle 5million pple. right.

A thought-provoking point by Prof Wong that stayed with me was that maybe we shouldn't take sea-level rise as such a negative thing. Humans are used to living on land. But with more water surrounding us, maybe we should think of ways to live on the sea instead. M felt it pretty ridiculous but I think it's actually a good idea. What say u?

Read more about the issue on WildSingapore.

WWF: sustainable seafood guide

Singapore version.. akan datang.

In the mean time, take a look at the HongKong version. looks like we need to stay away from shrimp... Read more here.

But the main problem is.. we never get proper information on where our fish comes from. Till then this guide will not be of much use.

Bottomfeeder (I)

"The Sea, Changed.
A permanent feature of the world's largest ocean is now a swirling sargasso of floating debris. This gyre of detritus includes Nike basketball shoes spilled from a conatiner ship, Logo blocks, highlighter pens, yellow rubber ducks, six-pack rings, hockey gloves... The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, as it is known, is now almost the size of Africa." - Bottomfeeder by Taras Grescoe

Which reminds me.. I had wanted to post this photo quite some time ago. All this trash would prolly be out floating at sea somewhere if not for our humble Singapore mangroves...

Bottomfeeder

REVIEW- "When Taras Grescoe declares he will try anything on his voyage around the world in search of ethical seafood, he means it. He eats poisonous pufferfish, morally questionable shark fin soup, and potentially dangerous oysters during months without r's. He even samples fishmeal (yuck). After 18 months of eating his way up and down the marine food chain, Grescoe exits a bottom-feeder -- committed to consuming fish lower on the marine food web, with the exception of farmed shrimp (too toxic) and wild abalone (too rare)..." Read more here.

See also the Bottomfeeder website.

I need to read more.

Food for thought

IYOR 2008 - Prof Chou Loke Ming - Keynote Address from BeachBum on Vimeo.

Coral paradise in Singapore by 2018?
What will it be like if our very own Southern Islands were a diver's haven.. *dream*
And on the other hand,
What will it be like if development takes everything away from us.
Singapore - the island with no reefs.

Which brings me to think of Wall-E (don't ask how I watched it before opening :P)
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Imagine if Earth degraded to the state in the movie... trash-filled with no signs of life, with humans wandering about in space waiting for Earth to be able to sustain life again. AND i love the humans potrayed in the movie - sitting around floating mobile chairs conversing with each other through virtual screens, even though they are like floating right next to each other. All humans in the show are like fat with stubby legs and stubby hands, and they can't even walk when they fall off their chair! - I definitely had a conversation with my brother about him ending up like that if he continues to do nothing but play computer games. See.. you never know..

"As humanity became more technologically sophisticated, the film argues, they became ever more divorced from nature, and their own nature. They developed a culture and society that was mechanistic and artificial, as opposed to organic and natural." - Full review here


So stop playing your Wii and get out and literally smell the roses! (or bougainvilleas for tt matter)

Random Wish list

If only fishermen had the means to fish for only half the fishing season...

and let stocks replenish the other half the season

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If only Dove had refill packs available in supermarkets or even better, set up refill stations.- saw refills only once at some dodgy neighbourhood store. (And notice how I couldn't even find a dove refill image to post.)

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If only styrofoams were banned in Singapore. It has already happened in 100 cities in USA.

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If only Green roofs were made compulsory in cities all over the world
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If only MOE made green education and field trips (like that organised by ecofieldtrips or nature groups) part of school curriculum. Always wondered why I never had the chance to go to Southern Islands when I was young. Didn't even know about it then. Read about Earth schools in Canada here.
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If only green media became the norm.
I would love to see a 'love nature' section in the Straits Times some day.
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If only humans could live with 'just enough'.
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"People can cry much easier than they can change"
-James Baldwin via Change Everything

Bottom-up Demolition

Amazing stuff. It's like watching the tower melt into the ground. Said to reduce environmental impact. Probably saves a lot of demolition space too.

According to the company, this method greatly reduces the environmental impact of the demolition, as well as the time. Kajima says that it speeds up the task by 20%, while making it easier to separate materials for recycling, as well as reducing the amount of products released into the air.

The process is called daruma-otoshi after a Japanese game that makes players take the bottom parts of a column—using a hammer—without disturbing the rest of the parts above.

For those of you who don't understand how this is faster, you need to remember that in normal demolition, a company needs to place the explosives in the positions where it will do damage, but not damage the surrounding areas. They don't just put a load of TNT inside and hope for the best. Usually it begins with talking to the building planners while trying to get the blueprints for the building. Afterwards, they need to go level by level drilling into walls to get to the support structures that they need to break down. This takes a long time, especially on a buildings that has more than five floors to it.

It's really saving time to remove one floor slowly, depress it, and remove the next. It may sound longer, but most videos of demolitions ignore the planning phase that wastes time.

Thanks to Gemssty for the link.

International Year of the Reef - Singapore Celebrations

Date: 9 Aug (Sat)
Time: 2pm
Venue: Function Hall, Botany Centre, Singapore Botanic Gardens (above Taman Serasi foodcourt), more about getting there.
Contact: iyor08singapore@gmail.com

Schedule of talks and activities

10.30am: "Life and Death at Chek Jawa" sharing experiences of a study of mass deaths on Chek Jawa following flooding in 2007, a talk by Loh Kok Sheng (more about the talk)

11.30am: “Wishing upon a Star” about our Knobbly sea stars, a recent emergence of baby Knobblies and discovery of a large population at Cyrene Reef, a talk by Tan Sijie, Star Trackers (more about the talk)

12.30-1pm: MAD for turtles (make a difference for turtles) : Games for kids about threats to turtles and how kids can help, by Cicada Tree Eco-Place and the Raffles Institution with four stations. Suitable for kids aged 4-8 years. (more about the event).

• Fishing for help: a 'fishing' game .
• Turtles and jellyfish: a story and animation with a simple computer-based game.
• Turtles and reefs game: a more vigorous activity.
  
• Pledge card signing.
  

2pm: “Are there reefs left in Singapore?” lifting the veil to reveal the hidden biodiversity of this almost forgotten realm, a talk by Jeffrey Low, NParks Biodiversity Reference Centre (more about the talk).

3pm: “Southern Haunt” about diving at Pulau Hantu, bringing clarity to the usually murky waters with underwater photos and videos, a talk by Debby Ng, Hantu Bloggers (more about the talk)

4pm: "Green, Mean, Photosynthesizing Machines!" a talk by Yang Shufen, TeamSeagrass and NParks Biodiversity Reference Centre (more about the talk)

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Looking forward to the talks.
Click HERE for more details.

Environmental Courses

DHI-NTU Education Hub Courses

The Green Room Cafe

Decided to blog more about my road to vegetarianism. Have been being good, staying clear of fish and only eating meat maybe 3 meals a week. Confession - been indulging when doing outfield work. Excuse being it's easy to get hungry not eating meat when u do active stuff, plus it's damn paiseh to be the deciding factor of where to makan when the survey team is all so hungry by the middle of the day. But I have to find a way to get around this.

Other musings of a vegetarian noob: it's bloody inconvenient to be vegetarian when u're eating out. The few credible makan places I've gone to only have a small (usually pathetic) number of vegetarian options on their menu. So when H saw on today's Straits Times Life! that The Green Room Cafe was a 100% vegetarian restaurant and chill place to boot, we headed down immediately. It was right next to a really nice bar and I swear the area is a neighbourhood version of Dempsey. Not in the habit of bringing a camera everywhere i go so no personally taken photos, but here's some shots from the Cafe's website:

vegetarian 'mutton' curry

$12.80

"thick and tangy curry flavoured with turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, curry leaf and chilli powder
served with organic brown rice"

portobello field mushroom

$12.80

"marinated in rich aged balsamic vinegar, topped with our homemade tomato relish served between a fresh baked bun with a fresh summer leaf salad"

H had the vegetarian 'mutton' curry and loved it, even being a non-vegetarian and a fussy eater. Me had the gnocchi ($13.00): "potato dumplings in a roma tomato and italian basil sauce finished with shaved parmigiano". No photo of my dish on the website but it was really good. The portobello mushroom is something i'll definitely try the next time I head down.

Food: Great
Food presentation: Great
Service: Excellent
Ambience: Amazing

Other vegetarian recommendations include the Cedele restaurant at Raffles City and vietnamese restaurant Va Va Voom at Seah Street opposite Raffles Hotel (though the later has only a few veg options).

Happy makaning!

IYOR'08 Web Seminar Series

An entire series of lectures by International Year of the Reef 2008 at your fingertips.
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Learn more about topics like:

• Managing top predators: Reef shark fisheries
• Connectivity, climate change and the future for reef fishes
• Muddy Waters: Water quality and run-off

Pity most of these lectures are based on the Great Barrier Reef. What happened to the Coral triangle?

The only lectures that were more regional (on South-east Asia) are these two:

• Power to the people: 25 years of reef management in the Philippines
• Before and after the Asian tsunami: Lessons for coastal management

and this one I think is particularly interesting:

• Rising Plague: Diseases in marine organisms and climate change

Check it out.

Spineless but vicious

Stumbled upon a Biology grad's blog: The Other 95% (love the blog name) and came across this video. octopus makaning a shark. kick ass man.

Sex in the Tropics: Coral Spawning '08

Friday, 25th April.

3rd day of 2008 coral spawning event.
Pulau Satumu, aka Raffles Lighthouse 8.30pm.
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Had the privilege of assisting MBL labbies in their coral spawning projects. Even though there were quite a few hints of murphy's law working that night, any spawning dive is still a good dive. :)

A few facts on coral spawning before the pix:

• Coral mass spawning has been hypothesized to "increase the chances of gametes meeting, enhance the possibility of outbreeding and toswamp opportunistic predators".
  
• Coral spawning in Singapore was first recorded by Dr James Guest of Tropical Marine Science Institute, NUS in 2002.
• It was the first record of coral spawning in the tropics ("In equatorial regions where sea temperature range and tidal amplitude are often small, it was predicted that reproductive seasonality and synchrony between species would be reduced")
• Synchronous spawning occurs on the 3rd to 5th nights after the full moon between 8 and 10 p.m.
• At least 18 different coral species from ten genera and five families (Acroporidae, Faviidae, Merulinidae, Oculinidae and Pectiniidae) have been observed to spawn in our waters!
  

Other accounts of mass spawning events: in the Phillippines 2008, Singapore 2006

also check out the nurse shark they spotted on day 2 of spawning! damn jealous la. anyhow.. YJ and I saw a gigantuous pufferfish (1m long?) and a super cute decorator-sponge crab. too bad din bring camera down.. oh well... More on E1's underwaterlover blog and SY's urbanforest blog

Photos below are from SY & YJ from the first two nights of spawning...

Acropora ready to burst/ bursting with eggs

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close up of the polyps
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Pink among the green.
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blob blob
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ooooooh.. haha
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Noob's post dive thoughts of coral spawning:

• Have a theory that the more sotongs our boatmen catch, the more spawning there is
• The fishes seem to know when the corals are gg to spawn, with more schools this month than in May when YJ did her check-out dive.
  
• Wonder how climate change are/will be affecting this synchronous spawning event. Felt like the spawning seemed less than last year's. Couldn't see the pink blobs floating on the water surface. But then again maybe coz it was already the last (3rd) day of spawning.

Till next year...

P.S.: Marine bio lab is always looking for competent *and* committed divers to assist in their work dives. Interested divers need to be medically certified and have experience in diving in local waters. Feel free to contact Angie at angieseow@nus.edu.sg

BBC: Penguins spotted flying to tropical rainforests

from Environmental Graffiti.
well with hail storms in Singapore, everything seems possible nowadays right?
*grinz*




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Happy April Fools. :)

Thanks guys

tis easy to make a nerd happy.

per juice's request, i have to tell the world what great friends i have to make them spend $60 on a coffee table book and another $110 on a slug pictorial for my birthday. but hey they're both freaking worth it k. just thought even though it'd be nice to have a book on singapore shores to show my kids: "see.. we used to have sooo many islands.. instead of the one big clump of thing now". and the nudibranch book.. every diver and reefwalker has to have it. the day i got it i spent the whole night browsing through... "look! Ria's photo!"... "oooh! i just saw this last friday on semakau!"...

yup. am happy.

thanks to lilyfield kakis and St Nix sisters. :)

Where have all the fishies gone?

on our plates - tt's where.
*disclaimer: found this on flickr. i DID NOT eat flying fish*

Went to Kukup over the weekend (place to eat and get fat, highly not recommended) and we had a nice chat with the Uncle who rented us the house. He used to be a fisherman and we asked him if he made more money from fishing or by renting his house to holiday-ers. Apparently it's easier sucking money from bummer singaporeans like us than fishing. coz now he has to go over to Indonesia waters to fish and that costs him extra under-table money. and y does he have to go to Indonesia to fish? well.. in his own words.. there are abt 80% less fish in Malaysia waters than before.

Ouch.

I've always known that the world is running out of fish. But to hear it from a fisherman is a totally different feeling altogether. You realize how real the situation is. And how its affecting lives. Still remember back in primary school when fish were under the category of "renewable resource" - not anymore sista. and if MOE still teaches our young such things.. well doom on us.

And how long can Indonesia fish stocks last anyway with the region's fishermen gg over and netting stuff. See, sometimes i tink its good that economic development is slow in some countries, then the reefs and mangroves are relatively untouched. btw, in case u tink why i mention mangroves all of a sudden.. i quote: "there are as many as 25 times more fish of some species on reefs close to mangrove areas than in areas where mangroves have been cut down". where u tink the baby fish live? mangroves are super duper undervalued man.

let the youtubes do the talking...
Found a series without tear-inducting background music.. and still gets the msg across.

Can the Oceans Keep up with the Hunt? (Part I)


Can the Oceans Keep up with the Hunt? (Part II)


Can the Oceans Keep up with the Hunt? (Part III)

our newspapers have been telling us about this issue for ages. bet you brushed it away pretty easy huh...

Earth Hour

Big hooha on Earth Hour but I still think it's only a gimmicky feel good campaign unless you make an effort to be environmentally aware the rest of the 364 days of the year. Still, at least the movement creates awareness.. which is always good.

So.. will YOU be turning your lights off for Earth Hour? :)

Semakau w Dr Dan

Good Friday reefwalk was very very fruitful, with many first sightings......

My first EVER seahorse and frogfish sightings. exciting stuff i tell u. Never seen them whilst diving too.. same for my first octopus sighting a long time ago. all spotted whilst on intertidal walks on our shores...

tiger-tail seahorse (hippocampus comes)
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Frogfish
(Antennarius sp.)

bet u can't even spot it at first glance can u? super dooper well camouflaged.. it just gulped down a fish with its lure.. hence the big tummy. at one point it even seemed to kinda barf.. but i tink it was just the imagination of the guides. heh.
check out the frogfish they saw at pulau hantu the next day too on Hantu Blogger's *super good vis* 4th anniversary dive.

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And then there was a few unusually big critters...

like this freaking thing-that-looks-like-a-rock
biggest oyster i've seen on our shores
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and this... biggest fan shell i've ever seen

last time i went changi beach with Samson there were pple with buckets collecting these there. yes apparently they are yummy.

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and then there were the unusually small critters...

unidentified sea cucumber. so tiny sia.. must be some juvenile
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and of course.. our other usual (but just as amazing) sightings..

mosaic crab

(lophozozymus pictor)
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swimming crab
(Thalamita sp.)
looks cooked right.. haha. i know! i tot it was dead (coz my dead Perisesarma turns red) but no.. its aliveee!
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unidentified anemone
thought to be a star anemone but later (according to CH) said not to be by anemone expert

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sea spider makaning a bristle worm
exciting stuff. this spider was damn fierce.
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flatworm

(pseudobiceros fulgor)

btw, can someone confirm.. what is the scientific name for spanish dancers.. issit a specific genus/species of flatworms or just all nice dancy wormy things?

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Halymenia

I find beauty in the simplest things.. *hurh hurh*
ain't this red seaweed just gorgeous?
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Mr octopus: I am (trying to be) big and scary!
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Nudibranch

(glossodoris atromarginata)
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Nudibranch

(chromodoris lineolata)
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pretty!!! branching anemone

(yet to be ID-ed)
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green blobs of ascidians on enhalus (tape seagrass)
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Dr Dan's students walking past the seagrass patch..
hmm.. who's this guy with a PAIL walking by.. hmmm...
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now we know...
drift net laid by the fisherman (aka guy-with-pail)
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CH trying to free a swimming crab
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dead tuskfish
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tis what was in the fisherman's bucket.

i guess fishing's ok if u consume what u catch, but for drift nets, its indiscriminate. well at least these fish get collected.. wonder how many swimming crabs died as bycatch.

*back-blogged* read about a person found drowned in driftnet on leafmonkey's blog.

Other links to blog entries on this trip on the wildfilms blog here.
Also check out Dr Rule's site where he blogs about the places the Duke University students (Dr Dan's students) have been to during their course in Singapore. I can safely say they've been to more nature spots on our island than most Singaporeans have been.