Marine study centre aims to swim with the best

Decade-old St John's station 'needs long-term funding' to fulfil potential
Grace Chua Straits Times 2 Oct 12;

SINGAPORE'S first post-independence marine research station celebrates its 10th anniversary this year - and there are big plans for its future.

But the Tropical Marine Science Institute's (TMSI) laboratories and aquariums need long-term funding if they are to match the standards of the world's leading ocean research centres.

The station is on St John's Island, just 6.5km off the southern coast of Singapore, beyond Sentosa. An outpost with a chequered past, the island was once a quarantine area, then a drug rehabilitation centre.

The 40ha island is home to much of Singapore's marine research work. Among its major projects are the study of the movement of currents in the Singapore Strait, the breeding of giant clams, how to prevent ships' hulls from becoming encrusted with sea life and collection of data on marine mammals in local waters.

TMSI's director, Professor Peter Ng, said the station has the potential to be Singapore's answer to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute or the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, American institutes renowned for their studies of the sea and sea life.

But a long-term funding programme is needed if it is to succeed, he said.

On Sunday, the island research station opened its doors to some 200 of TMSI's research collaborators and their families, including those from government agencies like the National Parks Board.

Researchers showed off their projects and some recounted how the St John's station was set up.

In 1996, a multi-disciplinary group of scientists campaigned for a marine science initiative, which was then housed on Kent Ridge.

An island nation, they pointed out, ought to have marine research on aquaculture and food safety, and how land reclamation and shipping might affect water quality and the marine environment, among other things.

For research tanks of fish and corals, they had to truck seawater into the National University of Singapore's (NUS) main Kent Ridge campus and haul it from a main storage tank in jerrycans.

After talks with the then Singapore Tourist Promotion Board, they leased space on St John's Island and secured about $10 million to build the station, which pumps seawater from the island's southern edge into aquariums.

The institute's budget was much smaller than the more than $1 billion a year Singapore was then pouring into biomedical and life sciences research.

Professor Chou Loke Ming, the first director of the Tropical Marine Science Initiative before it became TMSI, said: "We went through the 'dark age' when resources and funding were focused on biotechnology. The situation has changed now with a balanced focus on environment, accompanied by resources and research funding."

Professor Chan Eng Soon, who succeeded Prof Chou until he left in 2008 to become the dean of NUS' engineering faculty, said that early dedication has been borne out.

"If you look at some of the grand challenges today, they include climate change, sustainability and biodiversity", in which marine research plays a key role, he said. "In that sense, we believed in it ahead of its time and we pursued it."

Today, the institute runs on $10 million to $14 million a year, much of it from competitive government consultancy tenders and research grants.

For example, a three-year collaboration with the Housing Board and planners Surbana found that cultured coral could survive and grow on man-made seawalls.

And TMSI has recently revived its aquaculture programme, developing cockles free of hepatitis A by feeding them nutrients from seabass vaccinated against the virus.

Prof Ng, the current director, now wants to do more outreach and education for secondary to tertiary students, and wants the island station to play a "more national role as well", answering more research questions of strategic national importance.

"To build a Scripps or Woods Hole, you need to look 20 years down the road," he said.

"A lot of different agencies are involved here. How do we get them to come together and put forth a national agenda?"