30
June
2008
The Hantu Blog spent the weekend at Envirofest 2008, amidst a wholesome selection of all sorts of environmental groups like the Naked Hermit Crabs, Nature Society of Singapore, and Raffles Museum Toddycats. Holding an event such as this in the heartlands of Toa Payoh was very refreshing! We met all sorts of interesting individuals along with some very promising young people who hopefully will remember the wonderful things they learnt about Singapore waters when the grow up!
Volunteers Hui Bing and Chay Hoon gave their precious time to our humble booth at Envirofest’08. It was tough competing with the throngs of people that flocked to the Toddycat booth to view and learn about about the amazing specimens on display!
Chay Hoon also gave a talk at the event on Sunday and educated some kids about the variety of creatures that can be spotted in Singapore.
Amongst the animal exhibits, the Toddycats had a host of interesting displays that where so chock full of knowledge that even I learned something new! Some of Singapore’s most experience nature people like Oi Yee were also present at the booth to literally blow people’s minds away with loads and loads of information on local fauna, flora and ecology!
And Siva played the role model by showing everyone you can help make a difference to the environment in your own little way such as riding your bike instead of relying on fuel dependent vehicles!
You can read more about event at Habitatnews . Wildfilms also blogged about the event and took heaps of pictures! We also managed to organise a dive at Hantu over the same weekend so we’ve been really busy! Stay tuned to read the trip report from our dive and view more awesome pictures!
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25
June
2008
Where: Toa Payoh Amphitheatre (In front of Toa Payoh Community Library)
When: 11:00AM - 8:00PM Saturday, June 28th & 29th
What: The Hantu Blog will have a booth at Envirofest’08. Come down to meet our volunteers and get first hand accounts of what it is like to dive in Singapore waters! We’ll be there to answer all your questions about what you can expect to encounter in local waters, and give you tips about what you can do in your everyday life, in your school, or at work, to help protect our very unique Singaporean environment Bring your friends along too!
The event is expected to draw a crowd of some 5,000 - 6,000 visitors.
The other nature and environment groups will be there as well, including the Naked Hermit Crabs, Toddycats, NParks and Waterways Watch as well as the Animal Welfare groups. So you can catch up and get to know some similarly passionate friends from the community!
When: 2:30PM - 3:00PM Sunday, June 29th
What: Hantu Blog diver, reef volunteer, and nudibranch enthusiast, Chay Hoon, will be giving a talk to share her experiences and knowledge of the local seas with the audience at Toa Payoh HUB on Sunday!
She will showcase her photos gathered from her tireless hours and days spent on reef walks and diving! Chay Hoon has amongst her collection species that have only recently been recorded in local archives so come down and be one of the first few Singaporeans to see some of the amazing creatures that share our waters with us!
Chay Hoon is among the most dedicated and regular guides at Chek Jawa, a volunteer with Beach Fleas, as well as a volunteer crew member with WildFilms.
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23
June
2008
We’re not used to seeing huge heaps of trash piled up high in spanking-clean Singapore. Most of us have no idea where our garbage goes. Because we don’t actually take out the trash (if we live in apartments most of us have a private chute) and the garbage collectors come practically everyday, it’s difficult to understand the phenomenal amount of trash each of us consumes on a daily basis, and then, in a lifetime.
In Singapore we don’t have dump sites, which are highly unsightly. While there are some dump yards for specific types of waste like construction waste and waste metal, they are isolated at the very corners of our little island, hidden from the discriminate eyes of residents and tourists. It almost seems a miracle that a country so densely populated and with such little land can find a solution to its growing amounts of waste.
So where does all the trash go in land-scarce Singapore. In the sea of course. But it’s very well managed. State of the art seawalls keep the incinerated and processed trash (the garbage isn’t dumped as it is) inside the oceanic landfill. It also keeps the ocean out, which is very important.
But our resources are finite. There’s only so much ocean and land we can fill. However, our appetite for consumption is limitless. On average, products are disposed within six months of their purchase. We have to invent more, and new ingenious ways of looking after our trash. Because if you ignore your trash, it’s going to come back and haunt you.
This article, first featured in The Ecologist magazine discusses how “Old plastic rubbish doesn’t die it just gets tossed away in far-off places that we rarely get to see. Daisy Dumas assesses its impact on the world’s largest floating landfill the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.”
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3
June
2008
27 May 2008
Scientists have discovered a vast new underwater colony labelled ‘Brittlestar City’ south of New Zealand.
Millions of starfish-like creatures have been found on a peak 90 metres below the sea surface on the subsea Macquarie Ridge stretching 1,400km south of New Zealand. Details of the major find were announced by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research at a biodiversity conference in Oslo.
They dubbed the peak, filmed with a robot submarine, Brittlestar City after the five-armed creatures related to starfish, sea cucumbers, sea lilies, and sea urchins.
Tens of millions live arm tip to arm tip in a swirling circumpolar current flowing over and around it at roughly four kilometers per hour.
It allows Brittlestar City’s life to capture passing food simply by raising their arms, and it sweeps away fish and other hovering would-be predators.
Marine mission
Discovery of this marine metropolis highlighted a month-long expedition to survey the Macquarie Ridge aboard the NIWA’s research ship Tangaroa.
Scientists photographed brown-black brittlestars numbering hundreds per square meter and estimate tens of millions of them populate the 100 square km flat top of the seamount.
“We were excited to see such a huge assemblage of brittlestars on the Macquarie Ridge seamount,” said NIWA ecologist Ashley Rowden.
“Not only is it amazing to see a vast array of one type of organism but the implications of the find for our understanding of the relative uniqueness of seamount assemblages are potentially far-reaching.”.
New and rare species
The eight biologists on board believe some species collected have never before been recorded in the region while some may be new to science.
An abundance of deepwater cardinal fishes was found sheltering below a rock ledge on the seamount. In the lee of the rock, biologists believe, the fish could both conserve energy and access food.
Cod were found in the folds of a large bubblegum coral (nearly two meters high, and likely hundreds of years old). These fish were also believed to be finding shelter from the current and perhaps benefiting in other ways from their close association with the coral.
Rowden said aggregations like this had never before been observed.
“It’s this sort of information will allow us to improve our knowledge of biodiversity in the deep sea, and how best to manage it,” said Rowden.
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