Best of our wild blogs: 20 Jun 17

Next time you’re at St. John’s or the Sisters’ Islands, check out the plants
News from Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum

Highlights of the June Love MacRitchie Walk
Toddycats!

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3-year global coral bleaching event easing, but still bad

SETH BORENSTEIN, AP ABC News 19 Jun 17;

A mass bleaching of coral reefs worldwide is finally easing after three years, U.S. scientists announced Monday.

About three-quarters of the world's delicate coral reefs were damaged or killed by hot water in what scientists say was the largest coral catastrophe.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced a global bleaching event in May 2014. It was worse than previous global bleaching events in 1998 and 2010.

The forecast damage doesn't look widespread in the Indian Ocean, so the event loses its global scope. Bleaching will still be bad in the Caribbean and Pacific, but it'll be less severe than recent years, said NOAA coral reef watch coordinator C. Mark Eakin.

Places like Australia's Great Barrier Reef, northwest Hawaii, Guam and parts of the Caribbean have been hit with back-to-back-to-back destruction, Eakin said.

University of Victoria, British Columbia, coral reef scientist Julia Baum plans to travel to Christmas Island in the Pacific where the coral reefs have looked like ghost towns in recent years.

"This is really good news," Baum said. "We've been totally focused on coming out of the carnage of the 2015-2016 El Nino."

While conditions are improving, it's too early to celebrate, said Eakin, adding that the world may be at a new normal where reefs are barely able to survive during good conditions.

Eakin said coral have difficulty surviving water already getting warmer by man-made climate change. Extra heating of the water from a natural El Nino nudges coral conditions over the edge.

About one billion people use coral reefs for fisheries or tourism. Scientists have said that coral reefs are one of the first and most prominent indicators of global warming.

"I don't see how they can take one more hit at this point," Baum said. "They need a reprieve."



Worst global coral bleaching event eases, as experts await next one
US researchers believe worst event on record is ending but fear coral won’t recover in time before oceans warm again
Michael Slezak The Guardian 20 Jun 17;

The worst coral bleaching event in recorded history, which has hit every major coral region on Earth since 2014, appears to be coming to an end, with scientists now worrying how long reefs will have to recover before it happens again.

After analysing satellite and model data, and finding bleaching in the Indian ocean no longer appeared widespread, the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) has announced the event is no longer occurring on a global scale, and appears to be coming to an end.

Over an unprecedented period of three years, unusually warm water spread around the world, bleaching and killing coral.

Coral bleaches when the water is too warm for too long. The coral polyps get stressed and spit out the colourful algae that live in inside them, leaving them white. Since the algae provides the coral with 90% of its energy, the coral starves and – unless the temperatures quickly return to normal – dies.

In Australia, the Great Barrier Reef suffered the worst bleaching event in recorded history in 2016 and then again in 2017. It was estimated about half of its coral was killed between the two events.

In the Indian Ocean, reefs were badly hit. One survey in the Maldives found all reefs there were affected, with between 60% to 90% of coral colonies bleached. Christmas Island had virtually all its coral bleached, and 85% of its coral died.

In some other reefs, virtually all the coral was killed, with 98% of the coral around Jarvis dying, for example. Japanese reefs were badly hit, as were reefs in every other coral region.

“We know it has been the longest-lasting event and it has been the most widespread,” said Mark Eakin, coordinator of Noaa’s coral reef watch program. “And it probably has been the most damaging. In some places it definitely has been.”

Eakin said the data on total reef damage had not yet been analysed, so he could not say for sure whether it had been the worst but he said he would bet it had been.

The event started in 2014 when waters in the Pacific Ocean started to warm, in a pattern that resembled El Niño. The El Niño never fully kicked in, but the warming caused widespread bleaching.

In 2015 an El Niño did occur, which spread the bleaching even further, and the effects continued all the way until now.

Although the El Niño cycle tipped water temperatures over the edge, and triggered the bleaching, Eakin said there was no doubt the underlying cause of the bleaching was climate change. There have been two recorded global bleaching events previously, both of which occurred when strong El Niño events warmed oceans around the world – in 1998 and then 2010.

Eakin said the underlying warming was priming the ocean for coral bleaching, potentially with every El Niño.

“We didn’t even have an El Niño in 2014-15,” Eakin said, adding that a near-El Niño was enough to cause widespread bleaching then. “At this point I’d say any El Niño, even moderate ones, will probably result in widespread, if not global, bleaching.”

That view is backed up by studies with modelling that suggests the conditions causing the most recent global bleaching event would be average conditions within two decades.

Coral reefs need between 10 and 15 years to regain their coral cover, Eakin said. But that assumes they are not hit with too many local problems – such as pollution – or another bleaching event.

“The big fear is just simply that these events keep coming,” Eakin said.

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Malaysia: Fisheries Dept: Up to RM6bil lost to illegal fishing every year

The Star 20 Jun 17;

PUTRAJAYA: A total of 980,000 tonnes of seafood worth up to RM6bil is lost annually due to illegal fishing activities, says the Fisheries Department.

Its director-general Datuk Ismail Abu Hassan said it is estimated only about 50% of seafood caught in local waters was landed in the country while the rest were not reported.

"There are two forms of leakages. Firstly, foreign fishermen invading the country's waters and secondly, local fishermen selling their catch to foreign fishermen," he told reporters here Monday.

Ismail hoped the Government would provide an allocation to the Fisheries Department to add nine more ships to strengthen enforcement operations, especially in hot spots along the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

"Currently, the enforcement department has 380 personnel, and 40 ships, most of which are aged. Provisions are required for the repair of existing ships and adding new assets," he said.

On enforcement, Ismail said a total of 184 cases were recorded by the Department this year for various offences involving vessels and unlicensed equipment, intrusion, use of foreign crew and using prohibited equipment.

For offences involving vessels, he said the department had auctioned the catches totalling RM260,351, while RM423,100 in fines were imposed.

"The Fisheries Department also detained three foreign fishing vessels, one from Thailand and the rest from Vietnam. The value of seizures was RM7mil," he added.

In the meantime, he said the Department was proposing to make it compulsory for Zone B and C fishing vessels to install Automated Identification System (AIS) from next January to facilitate monitoring by the authorities.

"However, the matter is subject to the decision of the Cabinet," said Ismail, adding that about 2,630 AIS units had been given free of charge to trawlers in Zone B and C nationwide last year. – Bernama


Malaysia loses RM6b annually due to illegal fishing in South China Sea
NOORSILA ABD MAJID New Straits Times 19 Jun 17;

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia loses RM6 billion in revenue annually due to illegal fishing by encroaching foreign fishing vessels in the East Coast, said the Fisheries Department (DOF).

Describing the issue as ‘very serious’, DOF director-general Datuk Ismail Abu Hassan said most of the illegal fishermen are from Vietnam and Thailand.

“These illegal, big fishing vessels from Vietnam and Thailand purposely encroach into our waters. They steal about 980,000 metric tonnes of fish annually from us, estimated to be worth RM6 billion,” he told a press conference in his office today.

Among the hotspots are Kemaman (Terengganu), as well as Kuala Sedili and Mersing (Johor).

In the first half of the year, the DOF recorded two encroachment cases from Vietnam and one case from Thailand.

All the foreign fishing vessels have been confiscated, with total assets (including the stolen fish) worth RM7 million.

The captain of an illegal foreign fishing vessel can be fined up to RM1 million each and his crew members can be fined RM100,000 each if found guilty.

“I've also discussed the issue with my counterparts at Asean level," said Ismail.

Ismail admitted that DOF’s assets are in dire straits as they are already 25-years-old and cannot keep up with the illegal foreign boats in high speed chases.

“My department desperately needs new ships in order to protect our waters from these illegal foreign fishermen.

“In our current situation, we have to risk our lives in catching any illegal fishermen because our old ships can only travel up to 12 nautical miles per hour.

With new assets, Ismail said his department, comprising 380 enforcement officers, can reduce illegal fishing by 20 percentage points.

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Malaysia: On the trail of the dugong

ANDREW SIA The Star 20 Jun 17;

Our hunt for dugongs began at 6am. The air was heavy with salt and darkness as I trudged sleepily from the village homestay to the jetty.

I was on Pulau Tinggi, one of several islands off eastern Johor, with two marine scientists; and we were going to chug along in a large wooden fishing boat to Pulau Sibu Kukus, 45 minutes away.

Last October, seagrass expert Dr Jillian Ooi and coral reef ecologist Affendi Yang Amri, both from Universiti Malaya (UM), had accidentally discovered that a group of dugongs were regularly frolicking on the surface of the sea at dawn near Sibu Kukus, a small rocky island near the larger Pulau Sibu Besar. Would we see them again this year?

Why care for dugongs?

Our underwater buddies may be helping to ensure we have lots of seafood.

This is because dugongs are like the “cows of the sea” – they are marine mammals (like dolphins and whales) which feed mainly on seagrass.

While feeding, they are also “cultivating” large underwater beds of seagrass by recycling nutrients as they uproot whole plants to feed on them. An adult dugong can consume about 30kg of seagrass a day. Constant “trimming or pruning” by dugongs encourages the regeneration of more seagrass. The mammals’ faeces also act as fertiliser.

But why should the average Malaysian care about all that?

Research by Affendi and Ooi shows that there are six times more juvenile fish in seagrasses than in adjacent coral reefs. In contrast, coral reefs have five times more adult fish than the seagrass areas.

Their hypothesis is that seagrass meadows are probably a nursery and feeding ground for many juvenile fish, which then move over to coral reefs when they become adults.

In addition, seagrass also filters out pollutants and bacteria that bring disease, thus creating healthier environments for coral reefs.

“Both kinds of habitat are important for the marine environment. We can’t just protect coral reefs without also protecting seagrass,” summed up Ooi. She explained that seagrass does not always occur near coral reefs, but Johor is lucky to have both types of habitat close to each other.

“Dugongs are like ecosystem engineers,” she explained. “If the dugongs become extinct, what would this mean for the seagrass meadow? We are not sure yet, but the meadow could be affected in a way that fish, crabs, squid and prawns that depend on it could also decline. This would hurt our source of seafood and the livelihood of Johor fishermen.”

Patriotic duty

But do we really need to justify protecting dugongs based on how much seafood and profit we can extract from the sea? What about basic human compassion for these loveable gentle giants?

Isn’t it our patriotic duty to protect our national living heritage?

The hill at Pulau Sibu Kukus offers a glorious view of the surrounding seas. Photos: The Star/Andrew Sia

If Africa is proud of its giraffes, lions and hippos, shouldn’t we be proud of our dugongs? Sure, neighbouring Singapore may have its famous zoo and aquariums, but Johor has the real thing in the wild!

“It’s a matter of national pride that Malaysia has a wealth of wildlife,” said Ooi.

“Every species should matter to us, especially one as iconic as the dugong.”

Johor happens to be blessed with two major areas of seagrass. There is one off Gelang Patah in southern Johor, but it has been damaged by land reclamation and other development work and the number of dugongs there have dropped.

Luckily, the second expanse of seagrass off eastern Johor is still largely intact. This will be the site of a proposed dugong sanctuary including all islands from Pulau Rawa (in the north) to the Pulau Sibu groups of islands (in the south). It will also stretch right up to the mainland in Mersing.

Media reports have noted that it will soon be gazetted as the Sultan Iskandar Marine Park – that would be a royally fitting way to conserve and celebrate our marine heritage.

Robinson Crusoe

So there I was, in a wooden fishing boat off tiny Pulau Sibu Kukus. By now, I was fully energised by the chilly winds of our boat trip just as the first rays of the morning sun peeked out of the horizon.

“Sssshhhhh,” Affendi reminded us – dugongs are very sensitive to noise and we didn’t want to scare any away.

Everyone – including Ooi, Affendi, five other research assistants and the boat crew – focused their eyes or binoculars on the calm morning sea.

Looking out for dugongs from the boat. Photo: The Star/Andrew Sia

Suddenly, there was a little splash, but no … it was a sea turtle coming up to catch its breath before diving back down. We kept scouring and scanning the sea with laser-like attention … hmmm, were those just little waves in the distance? Or the faint marks of dugong activity? But after an hour, we only saw more turtles.

“We know the dugongs are around because we’ve seen their feeding trails in the seagrass,” explained Ooi.

“But we are not sure why they are not surfacing at dawn like last year. Had the last monsoon season changed the dugongs’ habits? We need to do more research.”

Dr Jillian Ooi (left) and Affendi Yang Amri plan to spend at least six months on Pulau Sibu Kukus to monitor dugongs, seagrass and corals in the surrounding seas.

In fact, Ooi and Affendi plan to become like Robinson Crusoe “hermits” for at least six months on Pulau Sibu Kukus to monitor dugongs, seagrass and corals in the surrounding seas.

To this end, they surveyed the only (tiny) beach on the island to see where they could set up work and sleep areas, a kitchen and that most crucial thing – a toilet.

“Well, luckily we’ve not seen any scorpions or centipedes here yet. Only kerengga ants (which have painful bites!),” smiled Affendi. “We also have to watch out for sea snakes that may return to the island at night.”

We then clambered up the slippery slopes of a small hill, to be rewarded with a glorious panorama of the surrounding seas and islands.

“From up here, we can constantly look out for dugongs,” quipped Affendi.

After the land survey, it was time for a marine survey. I had a chance to kayak round the small island (it took about 20 minutes) and could see how wild and rugged it was – most of it was rocky.

Affendi is off on his round-island kayak survey.

Then we all donned our masks and fins to snorkel among the seagrass.

“The seagrass has decreased compared to last year,” reported Ooi.

Before we left the island, we had one more spotting session from the boat. With every eye peeled and every ear opened, we waited … and soon enough, we saw little tell-tale splatters with our binoculars – the dugongs had showed up!

The kayak was promptly lowered into the sea and Affendi paddled out to have a closer look.

As for me, I was just savouring the scene from the boat, ah … this was the frontline of scientific research and conservation. Why, it was like being in a National Geographic episode!

Hopefully, the dugongs and seagrass will continue to be a national treasure.

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Philippines oceans in trouble: Overfishing, pollution, climate change ail our seas

Jonathan L. Mayuga Business Mirror 19 Jun 17;

WILFREDO LICUANAN, a professor and fellow at the De La Salle University, said the world’s oceans are suffering from three global threats: climate change, solid waste and sewage pollution and overfishing.

These threats, he said, are experienced in the most remote areas and even in relatively pristine areas, like in the Philippines.

“Philippine seas are unique, especially in terms of biodiversity, but suffer from the same threats,” Licuanan said. “The combined effects of these threats are actually enhanced locally because of our high human-population densities.”

Another global trend is the destruction of mangrove forests.

Also known as the “rainforest of the sea”, mangrove forests exist in tropical countries, including the Philippines.

Illegal wildlife trade

ASIDE from the degradation of coastal and marine ecosystems, the Marine Wildlife Watch of the Philippines reported that large marine wildlife, despite laws to protect them, are being targeted to the brink of extinction.

Globally, deaths of large marine wildlife, such as whales, dolphins, marine turtles, sharks and rays, are attributed to pollution—mainly ingestion of plastics and other solid wastes dumped into the ocean, habitat destruction and accidental bycatch.

In the Philippines, however, deaths of large marine mammals are now also being attributed to illegal wildlife trade.

Marine turtles are being killed for their meat and shell, while their eggs are being harvested. Sharks and rays are being targeted not only for food, but for their medicinal
or pharmaceutical values.

Other practices threatening ecological balance are observed in Oslob, Cebu, with whale sharks being fed to promote whale-watching as an “ecotourism” attraction.

Advocacy organization Oceana Philippines said the country’s fishing grounds are overfished, very much like most of the world’s fishing grounds.

Destructive fishing activities aggravate the sorry-state of Philippine seas, as commercial fishing continues to harvest fish in excess of the fish’s capacity to breed and replenish the ocean with fish stock.

Degraded mangroves

MANGROVES compose one of three habitat-forming species that are essential for the survival of fish and other marine species.

According to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), of the world’s more than 70 mangrove species, around 46 species are known to occur in various parts of the country.

But over the last 50 years, mangrove forests in the Philippines have deteriorated significantly. The country now only has approximately 120,000 hectares of mangroves remaining.

Mangrove reforestation efforts in the past few years have increased the country’s mangrove cover from 247,000 hectares in 2003 to 311,000 hectares in 2012.

Despite such effort, the country remains unprotected from climate change’s worst impacts as demonstrated by the storm surge triggered by Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) in November 2013, which devastated coastal areas in Central Philippines.

In response, the DENR launched a P1-billion project, dubbed “Mangrove and Beach Forest Development Project” in 2015, on top of its annual allocation for mangrove reforestation efforts under the National Greening Program (NGP) implemented between 2010 and 2016.

Climate-change effect

ASIDE from the environmental degradation and unsustainable fishing practices, sea level rise and ocean temperature increase are starting to take its toll on coral reefs in the Philippines.

In Honda Bay, Palawan, scientists have recently discovered that 90 percent of the corals in the area have suffered extensive damage because of coral bleaching.

Coral bleaching have been reported to occur in other areas, as well. The government has yet to come up with its own assessment of the areas affected by coral bleaching.

Scientists explain that coral bleaching occurs when corals experienced stressed caused by change in temperatures. When water temperature becomes warmer, corals expel algae living in their tissues, causing the coral to turn white.

Another cause of death of corals is the extinction of reef fishes depriving the process of symbiosis to take place. Reef fishes feed on algae that cover corals, allowing it to “breathe” and survive.

Without reef fishes, the health of corals suffer eventually leading to their demise.

Globally, climate change is causing massive bleaching of corals. The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) warned that if current trends continue and the world fails to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, nearly all of the world’s coral reefs will suffer severe bleaching every year. Coral bleaching was described by the UNEP as the gravest threat to one of the Earth’s most important ecosystems.

The UN body’s report on coral bleaching was culled from a study that reviewed new climate-change projections to predict which corals will be affected first and at what rate. It says that “on average, the reefs will start to undergo annual bleaching starting in 2043”.

“Without the required minimum of five years to regenerate, the annual occurrences will have a deadly effect on the corals and disrupt the ecosystems which they support,” it added.

Declining fish production

THE Philippines is one of the top fish producers in the world. However, annual fish production continues to experience slight but steady decline in the past few years.

On account of “unfavorable weather”, fishery production last year went down by 6.34 percent, from 4.69 million metric ton (MMT) in 2015 to just 4.35 MMT in 2016.

El Niño, which caused warmer ocean temperature, was seen as the reason behind the drop in fish production. It is also seen as the reason behind the high mortality rate of fish in the aquaculture sector.

The “Fisheries Situation 2016” released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) indicate that all fisheries subsectors posted production decline. Commercial fishing dropped by 6.35 percent, municipal fisheries slid by 6.47 percent and aquaculture dropped by 6.27 percent, thereport said.

Commercial fisheries recordeda total volume output of 1.05 MMT, compared to the 1.084 MMT posted in 2015. Commercial fisheries accounted for 23.33 percent of the sector’s total production. Municipal fisheries production recorded an output of 1.4 MMT in 2016, down from 1.22 MMT in 2015. The subsector accounts for 26.13 percent of total output.

Fish caught in inland municipal fishing grounds declined by 21.37 percent, from 204,733 MT recorded in 2015 to 160,989 MT in 2016. Meanwhile, the fish caught in aquaculture farms, which accounted for more than half of the country’s total production last year, dropped by 6.27 percent to 2.2 MMT, from 2.35 MMT in 2015.

Overfishing woes

OVERFISHING is seen as a serious threat to sustainable fishery production.

Oceana Philippines Vice President Gloria Estenzo-Ramos said the country’s ocean badly needs resuscitation and healing from humanity’s over exploitation of its marine resources.

According to Ramos, two-thirds of the country’s fishing grounds are already overfished.

She added that the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) needs to come up with more accurate data so that scientists can come up with an accurate assessment, as well as possible solutions to overfishing and other threats to the country’s coastal and marine areas.

From time to time, the BFAR has been declaring “fishing ban” in certain areas to allow fish stocks to recover.

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Best of our wild blogs: 18-19 Jun 17

Chek Jawa Wetlands Tour (Pulau Ubin) - Part I
Rojak Librarian and Part II

Butterfly of the Month - June 2017
Butterflies of Singapore

Equatorial Spitting Cobra (Naja sumatrana) @ Bedok Reservoir
Monday Morgue

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Hidden sentinels of Singapore’s biodiversity

SIAU MING EN Today Online 17 Jun 17;

SINGAPORE — On a regular dive trip to Pulau Hantu, all her friends were excited about seeing a dirty-green frogfish for the first time but Ms Toh Chay Hoon just could not spot the 12cm-long ambush predator no matter how she tried.

Her friends had to point it to her eventually.

“When I dive and people ask me to find things, (I have a) problem (if it is) bigger than 2cm,” said the 40-year-old senior executive with a chuckle.

Her eye for minute marine creatures though, has stood her in good stead as a volunteer with the National Parks Board (NParks): She has discovered a new species of coral mimic crab and about 10 new records of sea slugs in Singapore’s waters over the years.

An accidental discovery while she was on the lookout for sea slugs, the 0.4cm cream-coloured spotted crab was found to be an undescribed species that was previously only spotted in the Philippines.

Her supervisor at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, Professor Peter Ng, named the crab Nursia tohae — after her last name Toh. It was in recognition of Ms Toh’s “knack for finding small and interesting species during her many beach-combing trips”, wrote Prof Ng in the Raffles Bulletin of Zoology Supplement.

Little known to many, volunteers like Ms Toh have been doing important work, on top of their day-jobs, that adds to the rich biodiversity and contributes to conservation efforts in Singapore.

Their work come in many forms, from the discovery and sightings of flora and fauna, guiding at nature reserves and parks, bird-watching to the surveying of Singapore’s shores.

Last month, NParks announced that over 500 species of marine and terrestrial animals, plants and insects have been newly discovered or rediscovered by their staff, researchers and volunteers in the past five years.

Volunteers have contributed to NParks’ work since 1993. Today, more than 25,000 have participated in a wide range of activities, such as the citizen science programmes, which gets the public to participate and collaborate in scientific research.

While the coral mimic crab she discovered was a new species, Ms Toh’s main passion is in nudibranch or sea slugs. In the Singapore Biodiversity Records, about 10 species, ranging in size from 0.2cm to 5cm, were identified and recorded by her.

Ms Toh’s love affair with sea slugs started when she began volunteering as a guide at Chek Jaya in 2003. Back then, she did not even know what sea slugs were. But after setting her eyes on the species’ colourful bodies, she started reading up on them.

She also picked up diving so she could scour for sea slugs underwater — an activity she spends about 12 hours each month on now.

Whenever she spots a species that looks unfamiliar, Ms Toh would take pictures of it before checking them against a reference book she keeps at home. If they have never been seen here, she would contribute her sightings to the Singapore Biodiversity Records.

“There (wasn’t) a moment where I thought of giving up (on) volunteering because every time we go out, we look forward to finding stuff on our shores, and hopefully something new,” said Ms Toh, who has been guiding and searching for sea slugs for 13 years.

KEEPING TABS ON SPECIES AND HABITATS

But contributing to Singapore’s biodiversity is not always about discovering new species or recording first sightings in Singapore.

As bird-watcher George Cheah, 58, said when people ask if his work involves finding new species of birds: “Let’s try to keep the existing species alive first.”

Armed with a pair of binoculars, his fisherman’s hat, a clipboard and a plastic folder containing information on 30 common birds here, the vice-principal of a secondary school in the east spends two weekends in April and November — the breeding and migratory seasons respectively — as part of NParks’ Garden Bird Watch.

For about two hours in the morning those days, he would stand at places such as East Coast Park and HortPark identifying, counting and recording the number of different bird species he sees.

The data collected can shed light on bird populations and where they are found around Singapore, which is useful information for better park management and conservation measures as well.

While others might think this is a small role to play, the father of two girls finds his role meaningful in the larger picture of conservation as the authorities can keep track of the bird species and their habitat changes, for instance.If there are noticeable changes to population numbers, for example, they would be the ones to sound the alarm bells and get the authorities to look into it, he noted.

Mr Cheah only started bird-watching last year — he decided it was time to “get back into nature” — but he can now identify some of the birds by their calls.

At the start, he had no problems spotting common birds, such as the rock pigeon and mynahs, out in the open. But things were different when it came to birds in the trees. “It was really difficult. They were so well-camouflaged that unless they call out, or they sang or moved, it wasn’t easy to spot them,” he added.

Ms Ria Tan, 61, is another who chips in by keeping watch over Singapore’s shores. She has been spending about 100 days a year, or roughly twice a month, combing through various shores during the spring low tides, at times looking out for coral bleaching or mass fish deaths.

The founder of nature site www.wildsingapore.com, the former civil servant is well-known among marine enthusiasts and professionals alike.

When Singapore experienced the longest mass coral bleaching incident last year, Ms Tan was one of the first to document these on her website. Bleaching occurs when the waters are too warm and forces the corals to expel the algae called zooxanthellae living in their tissues and exposing their limestone skeleton.

She continues to share photos and her findings on how the corals are recovering from the bleaching incident as well as how the north-eastern coast is coping after they were affected by the oil spill in Johor.

At times, dropping in on the shores feels like paying visits to a grandmother, she noted. “Some shores are really, literally dying. And we’ve seen grandma in better days and every time we see her, she’s like declining a little bit more. But we still want to visit her,” she said.

To catch the low tides, she sets off sometimes as early as 2am to take a boat out to Singapore’s northern and southern shoes, accompanied by other volunteers and researchers at times. She has to transfer to a dinghy before wading through knee-deep water to reach the reefs.

With a towel tied around her head and dressed in a neck gaiter, rash guard, track pants, and dive booties, Ms Tan treads along the shore with her walking stick, stopping every now and then to take photos of the marine life, from hard and soft corals, small octopuses, sea anemone to sea cucumbers.

Unlike some others who splurge on long-distance holidays, Ms Tan spends her savings on visiting Singapore’s shores, paying S$10,000 to S$20,000 a year, mostly for hiring boats.
But surveying the shores “is the most fun part of my life”, she said.

Despite her long volunteering experience, Ms Tan said she continues to struggle with raising problems or issues with the relevant stakeholders. “The thing about it is that people get angry, which is not what I want,” she said.

For instance, if someone is seen fishing illegally, she grapples with how she can raise the issue without turning the public against the individual who may not have done it with ill-intentions.

“It’s these kind of issues that cause me grief. I have to think about it, figure out a way to deal with it which doesn’t hurt people,” Ms Tan said.

“I think everybody is trying their best. Everyone has their own focus and constraints, it’s just a matter of finding a way to synergise, collaborate.”

EVERY LITTLE BIT COUNTS

Volunteering amid Singapore’s nature does not always require an individual to invest a lot of time or money.

Healthcare professional Michelle Neo, 29, who volunteers as a guide at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, said a common misconception people have is that it is a very time-consuming endeavour.

“I’m here just once a month and that is very manageable,” she said, adding that she also has the flexibility to choose when she would like to volunteer for other activities.

People also have the wrong impression that volunteer work means helping out with registration or administrative tasks, said Ms Neo, who developed an interest for plants while collecting Young Scientist badges in primary school.

“When people hear that I’m volunteering as a guide, (they) are very surprised. They wonder whether I received professional training in this area … whether I need a degree. In fact … I do not have any educational specialisation in this but it can still be done,” she added.

Even for nature guide Jenny Lim, 52, who has a Bachelor of Science degree, she said she barely recalls what she learned at school because “she only studied to pass the exams”.

“I never really liked botany (that) much,” said Ms Lim, who only started to develop an interest in plants after participating in a sensory trail with her students at Pulau Ubin some seven years ago.

The senior teacher at the Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore Woodlands Garden now picks up new plant knowledge from fellow volunteers and NParks officers at their monthly sharing sessions or WhatsApp chat group with them.

The nature guide at Pulau Ubin and the Istana also applied what she has learnt by setting up a butterfly garden at her school last year. To attract butterflies, the garden grows plants, such as the Seven Candlesticks, Snakeweeds, Lantana and Rose Myrtle.

What gets her goat when she is volunteering is meeting individuals who insist on releasing non-native species, such as terrapins, in the wild and do not understand why this could damage the environment.

“There are those who might not understand the idea of why it’s important to protect our own native species and not just bring in insects or plants (that are not preyed on in that area),” she said.

“(Sometimes) it takes time for them to buy your idea but we don’t stop telling them what is right … We (just) do what we can.”

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To keep wild animals is to neglect their welfare

Straits Times 18 Jun 17;

Wild animals are in no way suitable to be pets in our urban lifestyle. By advocating for a legal wildlife trade, one blatantly ignores the welfare of these wild animals (Expand list of animals allowed as pets, by Mr Ong Junkai; June 11)

Over the years, the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) has rescued more than 400 exotic wild animals in Singapore, most of which had been abandoned or released.

Since 2015, we have rescued 25 sugar gliders and 18 hedgehogs abandoned in residential areas.

Many of these animals were either dead on arrival, or had serious health issues resulting from dietary complications and abandonment.

Like all wild animals, whether or not they are captive-bred, they have varied needs that are almost impossible to provide for in captivity.

Even the legally allowed red-eared sliders are found in every public freshwater pond in Singapore, as a result of abandonment.

It is also misleading to think that there are no health risks related to keeping reptiles or wild animals.

The United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has warned of turtle-associated salmonellosis in humans.

Expanding the list of pet animals is not a marker of progress, as it neglects the welfare concerns of animals and health concerns of humans.

We are thankful to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority for its enforcement against the illegal wildlife trade and the legislation that protects most wild animals from being kept as pets.

Sumita Thiagarajan (Ms)

Education Executive

Animal Concerns Research and Education Society

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Banks on the path of responsible financing

ZHANG WEN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT TO STOP HAZE
Today Online 15 Jun 17;

When banks loan companies money without considering environmental, social and governance factors, they run the risk of supporting companies that engage in unsustainable practices (“DBS, OCBC financed Indonesian palm oil firms engaged in unsustainable practices: Report”; June 2, Channel NewsAsia).

Unsustainable practices in the palm oil and paper industries are a cause of the haze that has affected Singapore. Non-governmental organisation People’s Movement to Stop Haze therefore applauds DBS, OCBC and UOB for outlining in their annual reports how they will be more discerning going forward.

Their financing policies embed environmental, social and governance factors into decisions about whom they lend to and the conditions included.

DBS has gone further by setting a sector-specific standard for palm oil: New borrowers should “additionally demonstrate alignment with no deforestation, no peat and no exploitation policies”.

Even if there is only one loan, regardless of the size, to a company in a high-risk sector, there is a right way to do it.

No deforestation, peat and exploitation (NDPE) is increasingly recognised as the gold standard in the agriculture and forestry industries.

It reduces the risk of fire and haze, as deforestation and peat drainage create dry and flammable landscapes, while exploitation often leads to land conflict, with fire used as a weapon.

Our banks play a role in promoting responsible practices globally and shrinking the pool of funds for irresponsible companies’ destructive ways.

To keep the momentum going, firstly we urge OCBC and UOB to develop and adopt a palm oil policy with NDPE. This would reinforce their commitment to a haze-free Singapore and South-east Asia.

Secondly, all three local banks should publicly disclose sector-specific policies for the high-risk industries mentioned in the Association of Banks in Singapore guidelines: Agriculture, chemicals, defence, energy, forestry, infrastructure, mining and metals and waste management.

For decades, our banks have served Singaporeans well as a safe place for deposits. As we face environmental and social threats, we hope that our banks continue to serve us well by lending money for a safer world.

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Malaysia: Elephant dead on highway

AMANDA YEAPandMANJIT KAUR The Star 19 Jun 17;

IPOH: A two-year-old elephant was found dead in a pool of blood by the roadside of the Gerik-Jeli Highway in Gerik, some 130km from here.

Perak Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) director Loo Kean Seong said state officers found the carcass at around 7am last Friday.

“While incidents like this do not happen often, we would like motorists to be extra careful when driving along this highway.

“We have already erected signboards to notify motorists that there would be elephant crossings along the stretch of the highway, so they need to be more responsible, especially when they are driving late at night or early in the morning,” said Loo.

Loo also urged motorists throughout the country to report to their respective state Perhilitan if they knocked into any endangered or protected species like elephants, tigers, tapirs or leopards.

“This is so that we can at least investigate and bury the carcass instead of leaving it to rot at the roadside,” he added.

Ecotourism and Conservation Society Malaysia (Ecomy) co-founder and chief executive officer Andrew Sebastian said the particular stretch of the highway itself should be viewed as a heritage road with potential for ecotourism.

In view of the wildlife viaducts and countless articles written about the Belum-Temengor forest complex, the road and its wildlife, he said motorists must be extra careful.

“This is to avoid accidents as well as to show courtesy, respect and adherence to wildlife laws that are meant to also protect our other protected users,” he added.


Teacher crashes, kills elephant calf in highway accident
Bernama New Straits Times 19 Jun 17;

IPOH: A teacher, who panicked when she came across a herd of elephants, crashed into an elephant calf at Km43.6 of the East-West Highway near Air Banun early this morning.

Gerik police chief Supt Ismail Che Isa said the incident occurred at about 2.30am when Aznida Alias, 49, was travelling from Tanah Merah, Kelantan to Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) in Arau, Perlis. “It was pitch dark and the victim, who was driving a Nissan Almera did not expect to see a herd of elephants in the middle of the road.

“As the elephants were so close to her car, she could not avoid hitting and killing one of them.

“She then headed to the nearest police station to make a report,” he told Bernama.

He said the teacher, her husband and their three children who were in the car, escaped unhurt.

Meanwhile, Ismail refuted claims that after the incident several of the elephants went into a rampage.

“The news which went viral on Facebook and WhatsApp are false and should be stopped as people are now afraid to use the road.

“No elephants or mother elephant went on a rampage,” he said.

He said the location was an area where elephants and other wild animals roam and the herd of elephant there tends to be very active from 10pm until the wee hours of the morning. – BERNAMA


Enforce speed limits to prevent another elephant tragedy
MEI MEI CHU The Star 19 Jun 17;

PETALING JAYA: Speed limits need to be enforced at the Gerik-Jeli Highway to prevent accidents with endangered wildlife like elephants crossing the highway, say animal conservationists.

This is the view of experts like Management and Ecology of Malaysian Elephants (MEME) principal investigator Dr Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz, who said that this problem would get worse as Malaysia continues to develop its infrastructure.

“When we drive through the habitat of wildlife and we go fast, we are likely to kill small mammals, so going a bit slower can prevent this. When it comes to elephants, you are saving yourself as well,” he said.

Campos-Arceiz added that people need to be aware that they are driving through a wildlife habitat and should not need to speed in such an ecologically sensitive area.

“We need to prevent traffic and control the speed limit on the (Gerik-Jeli) highway. We recommend a lower speed limit, and we recommend enforcement; we also recommend speed bumps and good lighting so there is good visibility at night,” he said.

Last Friday, a two-year-old male elephant was killed in a hit and run accident on the highway some 130km from Gerik.

Perak Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) state officers found its carcass lying in a pool of blood by the side of the highway.

Campos-Arceiz said that infrastructure development like the Gerik-Jeli highway is fragmenting the forest, endangering wildlife movement and habitats.

He added that he fears that future expansions of the highway would lead to more serious issues for the threatened wildlife in the area.

Campos-Arceiz pointed out that in 2010, a big female elephant was killed after being hit by a truck on the Gerik-Jeli highway while an elephant was suffered minor injuries after it was hit by a vehicle in 2014.

Similar views were shared by Gerik-based MEME field manager Alicia Solana Mena, who said that the highway is an accident-prone area, especially because of high lorry activity.

"There is a lot of roadkill here, you can see dead langur, macaques and wild boar every week. Last year, a tiger was killed in a hit and run," she said, adding that the Belum-Temenggor Forest Complex has a high wildlife density but the highway cutting through the forest has made it a dangerous place for them.

Solana Mena, who was at the scene of the accident involving the baby elephant, believes that it had died on the spot after being hit on the head by a speeding vehicle.

“There were many pieces of debris scattered around, but no sign nor clues as to the make of the car or the identity of the driver,” she said, adding that the blood and elephant footprints and dung from the herd was still fresh when she arrived at the scene at 9am last Friday.

According to Solana Mena’s survey of the area, the baby was travelling with a herd of approximately seven elephants.

She added that the herd was believed to have been looking for food and was eating grass at the side of the highway before crossing the highway at a spot where there are no metal barricades.

"The accident happened along about 700 metres of straight road, so the visibility must have been high as it happened early in the morning. It is unlikely that the driver could not see the herd," said Solana Mena.

She said that she suspects the driver was speeding and could not brake in time, adding that there is a possibility that driver was sleepy or distracted when the accident happened.

Solana Mena also said that she believes that after the calf was hit, the herd stayed to mourn its death before leaving the scene.

"It is natural behaviour for elephants to mourn the death of a family member; the mother and aunts would usually be around and try to wake him up, but they had left by the time we arrived," she said.

Meanwhile, Perhilitan director Loo Kean Seong has advised motorists to be extra careful when driving along the Gerik-Jeli highway.

"We have already erected signboards to notify motorists that there would be elephant crossings along stretches of the highway, so they need to be more responsible, especially when they are driving late at night or early in the morning,” said Loo.

In 2012, a pregnant tiger was killed by an MPV while crossing the East Coast Expressway Phase 2 (LPT2), sparking a call for the authorities to build safe animal crossings for wildlife to cross highways safely.

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Malaysia: Turtle killed by boat propeller in Pulau Perhentian

MEI MEI CHU The Star 18 Jun 17;

PETALING JAYA: A healthy male green turtle in Pulau Perhentian known as Vicky died on Saturday after being struck by a boat propeller that cracked its shell and injured its lungs.

Believed to be about 25 years old, Vicky was a resident turtle at Turtle Bay, often seen feeding on sea grass around the islands.

On Saturday morning, Perhentian Island Resort guests who were snorkelling at Teluk Pauh in Pulau Perhentian Besar spotted Vicky injured and barely moving at the bottom of the sea.

They immediately returned to shore to inform resort workers, who asked the staff at the Perhentian Turtle Project, a turtle conservation non-governmental organisation, for help.

Project leader Wan Zuriana Wan Sulaiman told The Star that moments before they went snorkelling, the guests had seen a boat speeding in the waters close to where Vicky was found.

"According to the Whatsapp message sent by the guests, the turtle was hardly moving. Earlier, they saw a boat zooming past, stopped in the middle of the water for a moment, and then continued moving," she said.

When Wan Zuriana and her team found Vicky, the turtle had already succumbed to its injuries.

"He had a big boat strike on his carapace. We think the strike was too severe," she said.

The team performed a necropsy on Vicky after recovering him from the water and found blood clots on the carapace.

Wan Zuriana explained that the boat propeller had cracked through the turtle's shell and hit its lungs.

"We discovered that apart from the large crack in the shell from the boat strike, there was a small piece of fishing wire in his stomach," she said, adding that the fishing line could have been ingested together with seagrass.

"If it hadn't been for the boat strike, he could live up to 100 years old," she said.

According to data from the Perhentian Turtle Project, the male-to-female ratio of sea turtles in Pulau Perhentian is not balanced.

"Since the Perhentian Turtle Project started in 2015, we have identified 250 individual turtles, including male, female and juvenile. However, the male population is less than 5% (if the total)," she said, adding that the fewer number of male turtles is also one of the factors contributing to the extinction of the leatherback turtles in Malaysia.

Wan Zuriana said Vicky was the second turtle to die from a boat strike within the span of one year.

"There are many turtles in Perhentian Island along the channel between Perhentian Besar and Perhential Kecil. Around this time last year, we found a turtle that had also died because of a boat strike.

"Many others get hit by speeding boats. We have seen turtles with scars and cracks from the impact of boat propellers, but Vicky was the most severe case so far," she said.

Wan Zuriana says the authorities need to enforce a speed limit within marine parks to ensure that boat activity does not claim another marine life.

"The boats play an important role in turtle conservation, but sometimes boatmen enjoy speeding to impress guests," she said, adding that taxi boats are also often seen rushing to pick up customers.

Although there are buoy lines where boats are not allowed to cross, Wan Zuriana said this protects the guests but not marine life as "turtles don't obey buoy lines."

There have also been several reported cases of high boat activity and speeding boats in marine parks injuring tourists.

In 2013, a British woman reportedly died and an Australian man was injured after being struck by a boat propeller while diving off Pulau Perhentian Kecil.

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Thailand: Wounded dugong, one of very few off Krabi, dies on way to veterinary facility

Sittichai Sikawat The Nation 18 Jun 17;

A badly injured and emancipated dugong was found in a bay in Krabi province on Sunday morning. Despite urgent medical care, the animal died on the way to a veterinary facility.

This dugong was about two metres long and estimated to be five years old.

Rachawadee Chandra, a veterinarian from the Marine and Coastal Resources Research and Development Centre of the Eastern Gulf of Thailand, said the dugong’s body showed bite wounds.

“We gave it an injection and loaded it into a boat in the hope of sending it to the centre’s base but it died on the way to the shore,” she said.

It is believed that the dugong might have fought with another male of the species in a mating contest and been injured. Its wound apparently had become infected, causing death.

A recent survey showed that there were between 10 and 12 dugongs in the sea off Krabi.

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